Introduction To Psychology Guidebook

Topic Subtopic
Science Neuroscience & Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Course Guidebook
Catherine A. Sanderson
Amherst College
LEADERSHIP
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Video Production Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ROBERTO DE MORAES
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JAY TATE
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COURTNEY WESTPHAL
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Audio Engineer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GORDON HALL IV
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Camera Operators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ERICA CORSO
RICK FLOWE
PUBLICATIONS TEAM
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RENEE TREACY
Transcript Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WILLIAM DOMANSKI
Catherine A. Sanderson
Amherst College
Catherine A. Sanderson is the Poler Family Professor of Psychology and the

chair of the Department of Psychology at Amherst College. She earned her
bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Stanford University and master’s and
doctoral degrees in Psychology from Princeton University.
Catherine’s research has received grant funding from the National Science
Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She is the author of four
college textbooks, including Real World Psychology (with Karen Huffman),
and two trade books: Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels
and The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and
Longevity. In 2012, she was named to The Princeton Review’s list of America’s
Best 300 Professors.
Catherine speaks regularly for public and corporate audiences on topics such
as the science of happiness, the power of emotional intelligence, the art of
aging well, and the psychology of courage and inaction. She has been featured
in numerous media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe,
USA TODAY, The Atlantic, CNN, and CBS Sunday Morning. She also writes
a blog for Psychology Today called Norms Matter that examines the power of
social influence on all aspects of our lives.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
About Catherine A. Sanderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Guides
1 Psychology, You, and Your World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 How and Why Psychology Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Positive Psychology: A Science of Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4 Your Brain: A User’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5 Your Nervous System, Hormones, and Behavior . . . . . . . . . . 38
6 Understanding and Managing Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7 Sensation: How You Gather Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8 Perception: Illusions and Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
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Table of Contents
9 Pain and Placebos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
10 Attention, Sleep, and Dreaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
11 Consciousness Modified: Drugs to Mindfulness . . . . . . . . . . 95
12 Performance Psychology in Sport and Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
13 Cognitive Development across the Lifespan . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
14 How Language Develops and Why It Matters . . . . . . . . . . . 120
15 Attachment Bonds from Infancy to Adulthood . . . . . . . . . . 129
16 Moral Development and Situational Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
17 Learning: Conditioned, Reinforced, Observed . . . . . . . . . . 147
18 Memory and Forgetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
19 Problem-Solving and Errors of Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
20 Psychology of Eyewitnesses and Confessions . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
21 Intelligence and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
22 Emotional Intelligence and Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
23 Adversity and Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
24 Motivation: Eating, Sex, and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
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Table of Contents
25 Emotions: Why You Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
26 Attraction, Love, and Lasting Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
27 Strategies of Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
28 Conformity, Social Loafing, and Obedience . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
29 Stereotypes and Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
30 Altruism: Origins and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
31 Explaining Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
32 Demystifying Psychological Disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
33 The Epidemic of Mood and Anxiety Disorders . . . . . . . . . . 290
34 Understanding and Overcoming Addiction . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
35 Ways Therapy Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
36 Mindset, Health, and General Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Supplementary Material
Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
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Introduction to Psychology
The field of psychology examines a variety of wide-ranging topics, including

why we think, feel, and act in distinct ways. How do we make decisions,
learn language, manage stress, and fall in love? This course addresses
fundamental questions about human nature: how much of who we are is a
function of nature versus nurture, whether personality changes over time,
and why different people see the same thing in dramatically different ways.
Each of these issues—and many more—is examined throughout this course,
including the foundational theories and “greatest hits” of the field as well as
the most current research and findings.
The first segment of the course describes foundational topics in psychology,

which will set the stage for subsequent lessons. This includes information
on how the field has evolved over time and methods used to advance
knowledge. In this section, the course also introduces two relatively new areas
of focus: the field of positive psychology, which examines positive emotions
and how to find greater happiness, and cutting-edge research on the brain
and neuroscience. The fundamentals of how the brain and body influence
our thoughts, feelings, and behavior come together in our experience and
management of stress.
The second segment covers core physiological processes that influence our
experience of the world in distinct ways. These topics include how we use our
senses to gather information about the environment and how we make sense
of this information by organizing and interpreting it in particular ways. Also
examined are the topics of why people willingly undergo certain types of pain,
like running a marathon, and how psychological strategies can help reduce
the experience of pain. This part of the course looks at states of consciousness
as well.
1
SCOPE
The third segment examines fundamental issues in development across the

lifespan, from infancy through adulthood. Such issues include cognitive
development, using and understanding language, forming and maintaining
social relationships, and thinking about and engaging in moral behavior.
The fourth segment involves a range of topics within cognitive psychology.

First is an examination of different theories that explain ways we learn new
behavior. Next up is information on strategies we use to solve problems,
common errors we make in thinking, how we remember things over time,
and how findings about memory and thinking have transformed our
understanding of the field of law. Subsequent topics include intelligence, the
role of emotional intelligence in predicting success, and how experiencing
some adversity seems to help people develop skills for regulating their
emotions and feeling empathy for others.
The fifth segment examines topics in motivation, emotion, and social

psychology. Example topics here are what motivates different types of
behavior and how we feel and interpret distinct emotions. Additionally,
the course looks at close relationships, shifts in our attitudes in response
to persuasive messages and appeals, and conformity and slacking in group
settings. Subsequent material discusses what leads people to engage in poor
behavior as well as the factors that push people toward prosocial behavior and
altruism.
Finally, the last segment of the course turns toward individual differences and
how we all have the potential for change. The course covers different theories
of personality, how we understand mental illnesses, and various approaches to
treating mental illness. The last lesson zooms in on the power of the mind-
body connection and its influence on aging, stress, health, and happiness.
2
Additional Resources
For those interested in learning more about any (or all) of the topics covered
in Introduction to Psychology, this guidebook includes two readings at the
conclusion of each lesson, with full citations available in the bibliography.
These are typically trade books written for a general audience on a particular
topic within psychology, such as memory, the brain, sleep, or stereotypes.
Catherine A. Sanderson selected these books based on readability as well as
on their reliance on scientific evidence. In a few cases, the recommendations
include personal narratives to provide different insight into a particular topic,
such as experiencing depression, struggling with addiction, or the hazards of
false confessions.
Another resource is Catherine’s textbook Real World Psychology, which

expands on many of the topics in this course. Catherine has also written
two books for a general audience that may be of interest. The Positive Shift:
Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity examines how
changing our thoughts about ourselves and the world can lead to substantial
benefits, and it provides specific strategies for making such a shift. Why We
Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels describes why good people so often
stay silent in the face of bad behavior of all types, from bullying to sexual
misconduct to corporate fraud. It also gives people tools they can use to
step up.
3
Psychology,
You, and
Your World
There is some confusion and
misperception about what psychology
is and what it is not.
Psychology is the scientific study of
mental processes and behavior. It
studies how we think, feel, remember,
and act. Research in psychology has
four main goals: to describe, explain,
predict, and bring about change.
Sometimes the objective is to do
them all, and sometimes the focus is
on only one or two of the goals. This
lesson describes those goals and then
1
examines psychology as a clinical,
biological, social, and applied science.
It concludes with a look at how
psychology may be able to promote
TABLE OF happiness.
CONTENTS
4
Lesson 1 | Psychology, You, and Your World
The Four Goals

] Description involves telling people about what happens in the world.
Research in psychology tells us that:
Y People paying with a credit card leave substantially larger tips than
people paying with cash.
Y Passengers who are Black wait significantly longer for an Uber ride and
are twice as likely as passengers who are white to have a driver outright
cancel their trip.
Y Children who take music lessons tend to score higher on intelligence

tests than those who don’t.
] There are many, many examples of studies that describe some interesting
effect, but once there is a description, the next step is to ask why.
Answering “why” questions is the goal of explanation: We’re no longer
looking just at what occurs, but the why. For example, the famous
nature-versus-nurture debate focuses on trying to explain whether
differences between people are a result of biological and genetic factors or
environmental and cultural factors.
] When psychology describes what happens and why, then the answers
often lead to the third goal of predicting what will occur in the future.
For instance, one researcher conducted an exhaustive study of every active
shooter incident at a school since 1999—the year of the Columbine High
School massacre. Her study reveals that school shooters typically have four
things in common.
1 They have suffered early childhood trauma, often including exposure to

violence at a young age.
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2 They have experienced some type of recent negative event, such as a

relationship breakup or loss of a parent.
3 They have studied other school shootings, often online.
4 They access to guns and ammunition, giving them the means to carry
out an attack.
] These findings provide fundamental insights into the factors that can push
someone to carry out a mass shooting.
] The fourth goal in psychology is to take the step beyond predicting into
realizing the potential for change. Insights into the factors behind mass
shootings, for example, can help teachers, parents, and law enforcement
agents prevent future tragedies.
THE FOUR GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
1 DESCRIBE
2 EXPLAIN
3 PREDICT
4 CHANGE BEHAVIOR
6
Psychology as Science
] For many people, psychology brings to mind the idea of psychologists
helping to change people through psychotherapy. And reducing depression,
or overcoming a phobia, or recovering from an addiction are indeed
important.
] But psychology research is much broader than just a clinical science

that examines the causes and treatment of mental disorders. Psychology
is partly a biological science, grounded in research on genetics and
neuroscience and physiology. Psychology is also a social science, grounded
in the study of human behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
] Additionally, psychology is an applied science. Researchers try to predict

how a change in policy or procedure will influence some outcome, such
as relationship satisfaction or obesity. Some of the most exciting research
in psychology demonstrates how changes in laws, policies, and procedures
have real-world implications.
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A Scientific Approach
] The key to the ability of description, explanation, and prediction to lead
to real and lasting change is that psychology is scientific. Psychology
is a science, and research studies in psychology are carried out using
strict scientific procedures to collect and analyze data about why people
think, feel, and behave in particular ways. That’s what separates the
field of psychology from so-called pseudopsychology, like palm reading,
horoscopes, and psychics.
] There’s also now a growing awareness in the field of psychology that even
studies that use standard scientific protocols need to be replicated to verify
their findings. In several fairly high-profile cases, findings from psychology
studies were widely touted to the broader public, and then subsequent
studies failed to reproduce their results. Such failures to confirm widely
proclaimed results are often referred to as the replication crisis.
] Sometimes the findings from famous studies that were conducted in earlier
decades have been called into question. In some cases, evidence has come
to light suggesting the original data was problematic, because researchers
didn’t accurately report their data or didn’t use appropriate procedures to
avoid biasing the results.
] In other cases, more recent attempts to repeat classic

studies have failed to achieve the earlier
results. A classic study in psychology,
often referred to as the marshmallow
study, found that kids’ ability to delay
eating a marshmallow for 10 to 15
minutes when they were three or four
years old was a strong predictor of good
future outcomes even decades later. But a 2018 paper
attempting to replicate those findings found much
weaker results.
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] In sum, the replication crisis has led researchers to give a lot of old studies
far more robust scrutiny and has led to some heated debates at conferences
and in leading journals. Most importantly, this shift to greater skepticism
has led to more rigorous research techniques that ultimately strengthen the
field of psychology and its conclusions.
Increasing Happiness
] It is worth highlighting an especially uplifting new direction in what
psychology has been emphasizing over the past two decades: how to
increase happiness. The field is called positive psychology. The science of
positive psychology is a relatively new development, pioneered by Martin
Seligman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and 1998 president
of the American Psychological Association.
] Considerable research in the field of positive psychology demonstrates that

people who go through life with a positive outlook not only feel happier
but also experience better physical well-being. Examples include the
presence of fewer physical symptoms, such as coughing, fatigue, and sore
throats; faster recovery from surgery; and lower rates of both minor and
major illnesses, such as asthma, the flu, diabetes, and even coronary heart
disease.
] A 2020 study shows that we can learn skills in positive psychology

and experience substantial health benefits. This study assigned adults
between the ages of 25 and 75 to either a waitlist control condition or a
12-week positive psychology intervention called Enduring Happiness and
Continued Self-Enhancement.
] This program consisted of one-hour lessons each week on a particular

topic, a weekly writing exercise, and an active behavioral assignment, such
as meditation. Some people took the program in person; others took it
online.
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] The program focused on enhancing three distinct sources of happiness:
Y First, helping people identify their core values, strengths, and goals.
Y Next, learning strategies to regulate emotions and practice mindfulness.
Y Finally, fostering gratitude, positive social interactions, and community

engagement.
] The researchers assessed people’s well-being and physical health during the
intervention and once more, three months after the program ended. People
who received the positive psychology intervention reported higher levels of
subjective health and well-being—and fewer sick days—both during the
program and even after it ended.
] These benefits were the same for those who took the program in person
and those who took it online. The study suggests that improving
psychological well-being, even among generally healthy adults, can lead to
improvements in physical health.
Reading
Loftus and Ketcham, The Myth of
Repressed Memory.
Seligman, Flourish.
10
How and Why
Psychology
Matters
Psychology research throughout time

has been used to examine and inform
real-world issues that impact people’s
lives, affecting matters such as what
they eat, how they feel, and how
long they live. The research methods
used have become more advanced
thanks to technological advances
such as studying patterns of brain
imaging, genetics, and creative uses
of so-called big data. But psychology’s
2
core research questions remain fairly
similar because psychology as a
discipline always examines how we
think, feel, and act.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
11
Lesson 2 | How and Why Psychology Matters
Descriptive Methods
] Many of the most common questions in psychology are studied with
descriptive methods, meaning methods that observe and record some type
of thought, belief, emotion, or behavior. Descriptive research methods
have many advantages. For instance, they tend to be easy to use and don’t
require expensive equipment or space.
] The most commonly used type of descriptive method in psychology is

the survey, which asks people to report on their thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors. Another type of descriptive method, very common in earlier
decades of psychology research, is the case study, which relies on studying
one or more people in great depth to understand what causes their
behavior.
12
] A third type of descriptive method is naturalistic observation, in which

researchers observe and rate real-world interactions. For example,
naturalistic observation could be used to evaluate whether people spend
more time washing their hands before leaving a restroom if they believe
someone else is watching them.
] It is important to note that all descriptive methods also have some limits
about what they can tell us.
Y First, we tend to generalize on the basis of a single experience. But our

attention may be drawn to unique examples that lead us to imagine a
larger pattern or trend that doesn’t really hold.
Y Another problem with some types of naturalistic methods is that the

presence of the person observing can sometimes influence the precise
behavior the researcher is trying to measure.
Y A third common concern about descriptive methods is that people may

sometimes unintentionally give wrong or inconsistent answers.
Y Descriptive methods are also highly vulnerable to how people

deliberately tend to underreport some things, like using drugs, while
overreporting other things, like reading books.
The IAT
] In an effort to get around the issue of people’s tendency to misrepresent
themselves either deliberately or unintentionally, in 1998, social
psychologists designed a famous test to measure unconscious bias. This
test, known as the Implicit Association Test, or IAT, uses a computer
program that shows people a series of images paired with words.
13
] People are given instructions about which type of word to press in response
to a particular type of image, such as when the image is of a woman, people
are to press the positive word, and when the image is of a man, people are
to press the negative word. Researchers then time how quickly people can
react to different types of pairings by pressing the particular button.
] When people are able to click very quickly, it suggests that at an

unconscious level, they have a stronger association. Studies using this
test have shown fairly consistently that many white people—who do not
describe themselves as prejudiced—are faster when they are told to select
the positive word when they see a photo of a white person. They are also
faster when they are told to select the negative word when they see a photo
of a Black person.
] Some researchers have argued that scores

on these kinds of tests indicate whether TRYING THE IAT
someone has an unconscious, or implicit,
bias toward members of a certain group.
You can try the IAT
Other researchers question whether these
yourself for free at
tests are really measuring a stable type of
Harvard’s Project
bias that can predict behavior or instead Implicit website.
are reflecting how someone is feeling at
the time they take the test.
Indirect Observation
] Advances in technology have also allowed researchers to gain insight into
people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior through the indirect observation
of behavior. For instance, researchers in one study measured Google
searches to examine rates of sexual orientation in different parts of the
United States.
14
] Overall, more men openly describe themselves as gay in certain parts of

the country—for instance, New York—than in others—for instance,
Mississippi. But it’s not clear whether there really are more gay men per
capita in New York than in Mississippi or if gay men are just less willing to
self-identify as gay in surveys and on social media.
] Researchers found that rates of searches for gay pornography are equally
common across the country. However, another query is much more
common in states in the deep South than in other parts of the country:
“Is my husband gay?” These findings suggest that there are about as many
gay men in all parts of the country but that gay men in certain states are
less likely to be open about their sexual orientation, leading their wives to
wonder if their husbands are gay.
] Using data from Google in this way is an example of archival research.

Archival research in psychology refers to any study using already-collected
data to test associations between different variables.
Neuroscience
] Another new approach to avoiding the problems inherent in self-reported
data is to rely on cutting-edge techniques in neuroscience. For example,
in a groundbreaking study published in 2018, researchers at UCLA and
Dartmouth College examined patterns of brain waves to see if close friends
were similar in how they saw the world at a neurological level.
] They found that we really are similar to our friends. Based on brain
patterns alone, the researchers could predict which people were friends.
The closer people were in the social network, the more similarly their
brains reacted to short video clips on random topics. This showed that
essentially, we pay attention and react to things in the same way as our
friends.
15
] However, this kind of neurological data is subject to some of the same

limitations as other descriptive methods. They only tell us whether there is
a correlation between two variables. They don’t tell us why that correlation
exists. Correlations can also lead us to assume connections between two
variables that may not really exist, at least not in any direct way.
Experiments
] To have greater confidence that one factor actually causes another,
researchers use experiments, in which they control many factors to keep
them the same for everyone while manipulating one or more key variables
to measure their impact. For instance, to measure the impact of cell phone
use on driving, researchers could use a driving simulator, where some
people talk on a regular cellphone, others talk on a hands-free cellphone,
and still others just listen to the radio.
] Experiments have another key feature that descriptive studies do not:

random assignment, meaning every person has an equal chance of being in
any of the experimental conditions. This prevents people from being able
to choose the condition they prefer, which would make the results muddy.
] For instance, in the driving study, if given their choice of condition, it’s
possible that people who are more competitive and time urgent would
choose the cell phone condition because it allows for multitasking. By
contrast, people who are naturally more cautious would choose to avoid
cell phone use while driving and opt for the radio condition.
] This would make it impossible to tell whether type of driving condition

was the cause of any differences in driving behavior, or whether it was
differences in which type of people chose the driving condition. This is
why random assignment is so important—and why experiments with
random assignment may demonstrate causation and not just correlation.
16
Natural Experiments
] Experimental research avoids many of the problems seen in descriptive
research, but even this approach has some limitations. One problem is
that researchers can’t practically or ethically conduct experiments on all
questions they might be interested in asking. For instance, there’s no way
to randomly assign people to categories like “only child” or “divorced.”
] In the case of many interesting and important questions, researchers have

to try to find what is sometimes called a natural experiment, in which
people are exposed to different conditions that the researcher doesn’t
control. For example, the one-child policy implemented by China from
1979 to 2015 allowed researchers to examine whether only children are
different by comparing kids born before and after that time.
] Children born after the policy went into effect were less trusting of others,
less inclined to take risks, and more pessimistic. However, it still isn’t clear
whether these differences are caused by the absence of a sibling.
Behavioral Genetics
] One of the newest methods used to examine questions in psychology
is behavioral genetics. This field asks: How are genes linked with
psychological behaviors? From roughly 1960 to 1990, research in the
genetics of behavior was based almost entirely on twin studies, adoption
studies, and extended-family studies. These studies provided some
evidence that genes matter, but typically couldn’t tell exactly how or why.
] But starting in 2000—with the announcement of the completed draft of

the human genome, the total complement of genes found in the nucleus
of each human cell—behavioral genetics was suddenly able to examine
17
significantly more complex questions. The field therefore shifted from

examining whether there are biological bases for behavior to examining
how much specific genes influence behavior.
] Genetic factors predict how kind we are to other people, whom we vote for
in elections, and how likely we are to get divorced. It’s important to note,
though, that most complex behaviors are influenced by multiple genes.
Each gene interacts with other genes and with environmental factors.
Ethical Concerns
] Some of the most famous psychology studies have raised serious ethical
concerns. In one study published in 1920, colloquially known as the Little
Albert study, a small boy was taught to be afraid of various objects—such as
rats, dogs, and rabbits—as part of an experiment on the development of fear.
] In a controversial study begun in 1961 by Stanley Milgram, people were

ordered to deliver shocks to an innocent person as part of what was really
an experiment on obedience. And in 1971, Stanford professor Phillip
Zimbardo conducted a study on group influence that involved creating a
prison in the basement of the psychology department, with some students
serving as prisoners and others as guards. This study was called off after
just six days, given concerns about the potential for lasting psychological
harm to the student participants.
] The serious ethical concerns raised by such studies led in the early 1970s
to the creation of new requirements for conducting research in psychology,
so that participants are not harmed. Since the National Research Act of
1974, all studies conducted by researchers at federally funded institutions
undergo review by an institutional review board consisting of faculty,
administrators, and community members who evaluate whether the
research’s potential benefits outweigh the potential harms.
18
] These boards also have the power to require researchers to change their
procedures. The American Psychological Association (APA) and the World
Health Organization both require this type of ethics review before studies
are conducted.
Research’s Societal Changes

] Improved research methods
have also led to important
changes, and even reversals,
in our society. For instance,
laws restricting cigarette
advertisements on
television were passed
after research showed
that exposure to smoking
in media led to increased
rates of teenagers smoking.
] In the 1950s and 1960s, homosexuality was widely considered a

psychological disorder, and some therapists employed various techniques—
which were ineffective at best, and cruel at worst—to supposedly “cure”
people with this condition.
] Subsequent research by psychologists starting in the 1970s led to some

important insights: Homosexuality was not in fact linked to mental illness
and criminality, as had been commonly assumed, and sexual orientation
is largely determined by heredity
and is not a personal choice. This
newer research contributed to the Reading
2015 United States Supreme Court Slater, Opening Skinner’s Box.
decision legalizing gay marriage. Stephens‐Davidowitz,
Everybody Lies.
19
Positive Psychology:
A Science of
Happiness
In the field of psychology, for much of

the 20th century, negative emotions
and psychological disorders seemed
to compel attention. The focus was
on topics such as depression, anxiety,
phobias, neuroses, and so on. But
during the 21st century, the field
of psychology has expanded and
shifted to include much more of a
3
focus on positive emotions, such as
joy, satisfaction, and happiness. In
that vein, this lesson’s focus is on
positive psychology and the pursuit of
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
happiness.
20
Lesson 3 | Positive Psychology: A Science of Happiness
Distinct Components of Happiness

] Happiness consists of at least three distinct components. One component
of happiness is pleasure, meaning how much one enjoys life experiences.
The second component of happiness is engagement with one’s life,
meaning being fully absorbed in whatever one is doing. The third, and
perhaps most important, component of happiness is finding purpose or
meaning.
] If pleasure, engagement, and meaning are so important, what about

money? An increase in money, such as receiving a raise at work, does
initially lead to more happiness, but we then adapt to this newfound
wealth. We then think that we need just a little bit more money to
feel happy.
] This is not to say that income never matters. For people with very low
or no income, more money does indeed lead to more happiness. But for
everyone else, once our basic needs are met, we soon return to our prior
level of personal happiness, regardless of greater wealth.
] According to the adaptation-level principle, we have a tendency to quickly

adapt to a new situation, whether that’s monthly income, a more pleasant
climate, or the latest iPhone. Adaptation also explains why we are wrong to
believe that big life events will lead to lasting increases in happiness.
Predictors of Happiness
] There are several factors that scientific research tells us do in fact lead to
greater happiness. For instance, there are small behaviors we can do in our
daily lives that are empirically shown to increase happiness. Exercising
increases chemicals called endorphins in our bodies, making us feel good.
Getting enough sleep can also boost happiness.
21
] Personality also predicts happiness. Some people seem magically able to

find the silver lining in any situation. For others, bad events become an
opportunity to obsess and ruminate. Personality—meaning traits largely
driven by our genetic makeup—explains about 50% of our happiness,
according to research by positive psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.
PARENTS VERSUS NON-PARENTS
The writer Annie Lamott says, “Having a baby is like

suddenly getting the world’s worst roommate.” Yet survey
studies show parents have more highs than non-parents
thanks to joys like a homemade Mother’s Day card or
seeing one’s child learning to read.
Those peaks tend to be higher than
the peaks of non-parents. But
those highs are coupled with
lows of worry, heartache, and
sadness. Such lows tend to
be more intense than the
lows non-parents experience.
Overall, parents tend to
experience more highs and
more lows, while non-parents
tend to have a much more
even-keel existence.
22
] Age can also play a role, as shown by some data collected from a large
sample of Americans that examines happiness across the lifespan: ages 18
to 85. First, happiness is high in people ages 18 to 21. It then drops until
reaching a bottom around age 50. Then, happiness rises again for people in
their later 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.
] This U-shaped curve describing the link between age and happiness is not
a uniquely American finding. In fact, the same shape of the curve is seen in
all 132 different countries that have been studied so far.
] Why does happiness tend to increase with age? Research by Laura

Carstensen, the director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, reveals that
people’s relationships change dramatically across the life span.
Y Young people tend to have big social networks, with lots of casual
friends and acquaintances. Older people tend to have much smaller
social networks; they spend time with people they care about and who
care about them.
Y The older people are essentially choosing quality over quantity. This
choice to spend time with people we feel close and connected to is a
strong predictor of greater happiness.
] The single best predictor of happiness is the quality of one’s relationships.

As Harvard social psychologist Daniel Gilbert writes in Stumbling on
Happiness:
We are happy when we have family, we are happy

when we have friends—and almost all the other
things we think make us happy are actually just
ways of getting more family and friends.
23
Finding Happiness
] Happiness for many of us involves effort. We have to decide we want to
be happy, we have to decide we deserve to be happy, and we have to spend
time and energy doing things that empirical research shows increase
happiness. If happiness doesn’t come easily, it’s something to fight for.
] First in the fight for happiness is to spend money wisely. Specifically,

spending money on experiences is important. Doing so provides an
opportunity to both anticipate the experience and look back on the
experience, both of which produce even more happiness.
] Research also suggests that shared experiences tend to contribute even

more to happiness. Going on a trip, seeing a Broadway play, or seeing a
World Series game are great experiences—but they are even better when
done with friends and family.
] Second, fighting for happiness means avoiding comparisons. Many of

us may feel perfectly happy with our own lives, right up until we start
comparing our lives with those of other people around us. Then, we start
to feel worse.
] Unfortunately, this advice to avoid comparison is hard to follow, given the

ease with which we all make comparisons based on what other people post
on social media. Reducing the time spent on social media can help. It can
also be helpful to keep in mind that whatever people post on social media
is what they are choosing to share, which is at most a partial portrayal of
their actual lives.
] Third, one of the best ways to find more happiness is to give to other
people. Essentially, anything and anyone counts. For instance, people who
volunteer in their community report greater happiness. And people who
donate to charity experience greater happiness.
24
“Comparison is
the thief of joy.”
—Teddy Roosevelt
] Fourth, happiness is related to expressions of gratitude. Many of us have a

tendency to focus on what’s bad in our lives. We obsess over the problems
we face and our growing to-do lists. Happiness, however, involves focusing
on things in life that we are grateful for—whether that’s a great glass of
wine, watching a movie with friends, or something else.
] Still, as previously mentioned, relationships are the single best predictor

of our happiness. The best route to happiness is building and maintaining
close relationships. That’s the challenge:
Good relationships don’t happen by
magic. They take hard work.
Reading
Gilbert, Stumbling
on Happiness.
Lyubomirsky, The
How of Happiness.
25
Your Brain:
A User’s Guide
This lesson provides an overview of

how we study the brain and what has
been learned. It also discusses the
major parts and functions of the brain
4
as well as how the brain can change
over time.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
26
Lesson 4 | Your Brain: A User’s Guide
Early Knowledge
] Some of our earliest knowledge about
how different parts of the brain
have different functions came from
studying how people with different
brain injuries experience distinct types
of impairments. In 1848, a young
railroad foreman named Phineas Gage
suffered a tragic accident while packing
explosive powder into a hole when the
powder detonated.
PHINEAS GAGE
] The detonation sent a metal rod
directly into his face. The rod entered
his left check, tore through his brain, exited the back of his skull, and then
landed 80 feet away. Gage survived this severe injury and was able to walk
to a nearby cart so that he could be taken to receive medical treatment. He
remained conscious the entire time and was even able to speak.
] After Gage’s recovery, he tried to return to work but was soon fired.
Reports at the time described him as a changed man after the accident,
shifting from a previously friendly, efficient, and capable worker to one
who was impulsive and unreliable.
] Although it’s clear that Gage’s personality changed considerably following

the accident, more recent examinations of his life suggest he was less
severely injured than is often described. He spent many years driving
stagecoaches, which required relatively high-level motor, cognitive, and
interpersonal skills.
] But this case remains an important one in the field of psychology because
it was the first to suggest specific areas of the brain control certain
functions. This is what we now call the localization of brain function.
27
EEGs
] Modern techniques provide even more insight into how different parts
of the brain function. One such approach, the electroencephalography,
or EEG, involves placing electrodes on a person’s head and then
measuring the electrical activity produced by the brain’s neurons during
different tasks.
] An EEG can measure changes in patterns of brain waves during different

stages of sleep or while a person is reading, writing, or speaking. Studies
using EEG reveal that brain activity differs when people view members of
different groups, such as men versus women or Black people versus white
people. This type of categorization happens automatically, with little or no
conscious awareness or control.
28
MRIs and fMRIs

] The brain’s structure and localized
activity can be revealed well with
magnetic resonance imaging,
or MRI, which takes a picture
of the brain’s anatomy.
MRI later led to fMRI,
or functional MRI, which
investigates which part of
the brain is handling specific
functions.
] An fMRI measures small changes in blood flow that occur while the brain
is performing a particular type of task, such as reading or moving. These
techniques can be used to determine what part of the brain responds to
some task or stimulus, such as seeing a picture of a spider or while listening
to music. They can also be used to evaluate whether multiple parts of the
brain are firing—or “lighting up”—in response to the same stimulus.
] One fascinating study using fMRI data examined patterns of brain

activity in young kids as they looked at math equations where the answer
shown might be correct or not. Children who were high in math anxiety
showed less activity in a particular part of the brain that’s responsible for
mathematical reasoning, showing the part of the brain that should have
been evaluating the answer wasn’t really engaging.
] Meanwhile, another part of the brain—the amygdala, which processes

negative emotions—was very active. Imagine being able to identify kids at
risk of math phobia early on. That could help us take steps to reduce such
anxiety.
29
Three Parts of the Brain

] The brain is divided into three major sections: the hindbrain, the
midbrain, and the forebrain. The hindbrain is the part
of the brain directly above the spinal cord and
directs basic processes needed for survival,
such as respiration, heart rate, and arousal.
] The hindbrain consists of three separate

parts: the medulla, which is essentially
an extension of the spinal cord and
conveys messages to and from the
brain; the pons, which carries
information between several areas of
the brain; and the cerebellum, which
controls fine muscle movement and
balance.
] The second major part of the brain is the midbrain,

which is located above the hindbrain. Running through the hindbrain
and midbrain is a network of neurons, called the reticular formation,
that maintains consciousness, regulates behavioral
arousal, and alerts other parts of the brain to
important events. Because of its control
over basic processes necessary for
survival, damage to this part of the
brain is instantly fatal.
30
] The midbrain helps orient our eyes and bodies to both visual and auditory
information in the world. It’s also involved in regulating movement. The
midbrain contains a small structure known as the substantia nigra that
secretes dopamine, a neurotransmitter.
] Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder causing problems with

movement and balance, develops when cells in this part of the brain begin
to die, leading to a loss of dopamine, which in turn causes problems with
movement. This is why drugs that provide dopamine can substantially
reduce, though not eliminate, the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
] The third and largest major part of the brain is the forebrain, which
controls thoughts, motivations, and emotions. The forebrain is involved in
complex emotional, cognitive, and behavioral processes. It includes four
key structures, each of which plays a distinctive role in making us who
we are.
The Structures of the Forebrain

] The limbic system is an interconnected group of structures, including the
amygdala and hippocampus, that is generally responsible for emotions
and memory. The amygdala, a structure within the limbic
system, processes emotions, particularly
fear. The hippocampus, another part
of the limbic system, is involved in
forming, organizing, and storing
memories. It’s also involved
in connecting sensations and
emotions to these memories,
which is why a particular
smell or song can often
trigger a specific memory.
31
] The second major structure of

the forebrain, the thalamus,
is essentially the brain’s
switchboard. It takes
in information from
various sensory
systems throughout the
body and then directs
that information to the
appropriate part of the brain.
] Directly underneath the thalamus

is the hypothalamus, which controls
temperature as well as many basic motives and
drives, such as hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression.
Many people find it hard to maintain weight loss over
the long term, and one explanation is that eating a diet
high in fat and sugar for years can damage the hypothalamus.
] The thin surface layer of the brain is called the cerebral cortex. It
controls the most complex behaviors and higher mental processes, such
as recognizing a friend, reading a book, and playing games. The cerebral
cortex is very thin—about an eighth of an inch thick—but its numerous
wrinkles create a much larger surface area.
Cerebral Hemispheres
] Just below the cerebral cortex, the brain is divided lengthwise into two
cerebral hemispheres, which together amount to about 80% of the brain’s
total weight. These hemispheres are made up of about 30 billion neurons
and nine times as many glial cells, which provide support and protection
for the neurons.
32
] The two hemispheres of the forebrain control opposite sides of the body:
The right hemisphere controls the left-hand side of the body and vice
versa. These two hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, a
large bundle of more than 200 million nerve fibers located just above the
thalamus, which sends information back and forth between the two sides.
] The two sides tend to work together on related aspects of a task. For
example, the left hemisphere might process the specific words heard
in a conversation, while the right hemisphere would help the listener
understand the tone and context of the words.
The Lobes
] Each hemisphere of the
forebrain is divided into
four distinct areas, or
lobes, which each specialize
in somewhat different tasks.
The frontal lobes, by far the largest
of the four lobes, are located at the top
front of the brain.
] The frontal lobes are in charge of motor control,

speech production, and various higher-level functions,
such as personality, memory, emotion, and thinking. They are also
responsible for executive functioning tasks, such as planning, working
memory, and impulse control, which are among the last areas of the brain
to fully develop.
] In the top rear of the brain are the parietal lobes, which receive and
interpret sensations from all over the body, including pressure, pain,
touch, temperature, and location. This part of the brain includes the
somatosensory cortex, which processes information about touch.
33
] Located near the temples of the skull are the temporal lobes, which have
a major role in processing feelings. These are close to the ears and receive
and make sense of sounds. The auditory cortex, which is located on the top
of each temporal lobe, is responsible for receiving incoming sounds and
then passing it on to the parietal lobes, where sound input is combined
with other types of sensory information.
] At the rear base of the skull are the occipital lobes, which are responsible
for processing visual stimulation received from the eyes. Damage to
the occipital lobes can cause blindness, even if the eyes and their neural
pathways to the brain are perfectly fine.
INJURIES TO THE BRAIN
Although scientists
initially thought that
only concussions or
more serious levels
of traumatic brain
injury could lead to
impairments, more
recent research
suggests even more
minor head impact
can result in changes in
the brain.
34
Neuroplasticity
] Research beginning in the mid-1990s has found that the functions
and structure of the brain can and do change, sometimes even during
adulthood. The brain’s ability to adapt to our changing needs, based on
experience, is known as neuroplasticity.
] When parts of the brain are injured, in some cases, other parts of the
brain take over their functions. The brain therefore seems to reorganize
to compensate for damage to particular areas of the brain and allow for at
least some restored abilities. This process is stronger and easier in young
children.
] But even adult brains show some evidence of change, including restoring
old connections and functions that have not been used for some time
and forming new pathways. For example, older adults with early signs of
cognitive impairment who are assigned to take country-dancing lessons,
which involves complex choreography, show improvements in brain
structure six months later. Those who engage in other forms of exercise—
brisk walking or gentle stretching—show no such changes, indicating that
learning some new skill helps stimulate brain growth in distinct ways.
] However, there are limits to the brain’s ability to reorganize. Infants who
are born with cataracts—a clouding over the eyes’ natural lenses—are
never able to experience normal vision even after undergoing surgery to
remove the cataracts unless the surgery is performed very early in life:
within 6 to 10 weeks after birth.
] The reason is that the brain cells that normally process visual information
either stop working or are converted to process other types of sensory
information. At least in some cases, the development of brain cells is a “use
it or lose it” proposition.
35
STIMULATION AND MEMORY
People who regularly engage in mentally stimulating

activities are less likely to develop memory problems,
including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
More Types of Change

] The brain can also change in response to environmental factors and
experiences. For example, when blind people learn to read Braille using
their fingers, the part of the brain dedicated to processing touch—the
parietal lobe—expands.
] The ability of the brain to reorganize in response to daily life experience

helps explain a perhaps puzzling finding: In London taxi drivers, the part
of the brain responsible for spatial representation—the mid-posterior
hippocampus—is larger than in London bus drivers. It seems that the
taxi drivers’ brains change in response to the fact that they must acquire
and use knowledge of a large and complex city, not just repeatedly drive a
set route.
] The fact that the brain forms new connections and makes new pathways in
response to life experiences has tremendous practical
implications. Researchers at MIT found
that young children who have more
back-and-forth conversations
with adults show much more
activation in Broca’s area—the
part of the brain that is involved
in speech production and
language processing—when they
listen to stories.
36
] This greater brain activation fully predicts children’s scores on tests of

language skills, including vocabulary, grammar, and verbal reasoning.
These findings tell us that back-and-forth conversation with adults actually
changes children’s brains in ways that improve their ability to use language.
] Another equally important finding is that the brain also gets rid of old,
useless pathways. Getting rid of irrelevant pathways is as important a part
of brain development as forming new ones.
] From the moment of birth, each new experience a child has—such as

learning a new word or seeing the ocean for the first time—has to be sent
to the brain so that it can be processed, which leads to changes in brain
structure, function, or both. As each brain cell matures, it forms more and
more neural connections with other brain cells, which is why babies add
more than a million new neural connections every second. This process
leads to rapid brain growth during the first few years of life.
] At birth, each neuron in the cerebral cortex has about 2,500 connections.
But two or three years later, each neuron has about 15,000 connections.
That’s about twice as many neural connections as the average adult brain.
This is far more connections than the brain needs, and it makes processing
information slow and inefficient.
] Between early childhood and adulthood, a natural process known

as synaptic pruning takes place in which the brain basically decides
which connections are important to keep and which ones can be let go.
Connections that are regularly activated are maintained because the brain
gets that they are obviously important.
] But weaker connections, those that are rarely called on, are slowly pruned
away. This natural maturation process allows for more complex thought
processes and more sustained attention.
However, the brain does become less flexible
as neural connections are pruned away. Reading
Lieberman, Social.
Plomin, Blueprint.
37
Your Nervous
System,
Hormones, and
Behavior
The nervous system is typically

divided into the central nervous
system—which includes not only the
brain but also the spinal cord—and
the peripheral nervous system, which
includes all of the nerves outside of
the brain and spinal cord. This lesson
5
begins with the spinal cord. It then
moves on to neurons and the specific
functions of the peripheral nervous
system.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
38
Lesson 5 | Your Nervous System, Hormones, and Behavior
Spinal Cord Basics

] The spinal cord, which is a long tube containing bundles of nerve fibers,
is the core of the entire nervous system, and it has two main functions.
First, the spinal cord can initiate certain automatic behaviors on its own.
These involuntary behaviors are called reflexes because the response to
the incoming stimuli is automatically sent to the spinal cord and then
“reflected” back to the relevant muscles.
] Reflexes are basically a shortcut that allows the body to immediately react
since the signals never pass through the brain. We’re all born with numerous
reflexes, such as blinking in response to a puff of air delivered to the eyes.
] Second, the spinal cord carries information from the entire body into and
out of the brain. The spinal cord works together with the peripheral nervous
system, which carries information to and from the central nervous system of
the brain and spinal cord to the body’s sense receptors, muscles, and glands.
Peripheral Nervous System Basics

] The peripheral nervous system is divided into two distinct parts that
control different types of processes. The somatic nervous system carries
sensory information to the brain and spinal cord and then carries messages
from the brain and spinal cord to muscles.
] The other part of the peripheral nervous system is the autonomic nervous
system, which controls involuntary tasks, including heartbeats, digestion,
and breathing. This system operates at an automatic level.
] The autonomic nervous system also divides into two distinct branches: the
sympathetic and the parasympathetic, which work in opposition to each other
to regulate multiple activities within the body, including breathing, heart rate,
digestion, and sexual arousal. These two systems balance each other out.
39
] The sympathetic nervous system helps the body respond quickly to mobilize
resources during times of stress; this emergency response is often described
as the fight-or-flight response. The parasympathetic nervous system works
to calm the body and conserve energy, including the freeze response.
Neurons
] For all of these aspects of the nervous system, the basic building block is the
nerve cell, or neuron. Neurons take in sensory information from the outside
world and then pass it along to the entire body. This complex system of
communication is responsible for all our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Here’s a simple example: If a woman touches a hot stove, the sensation on
her hand sends a signal via neurons to the central nervous system signaling
pain, which then stimulates the muscles in the arm to move her hand.
] Neurons are smaller than the width of a strand of hair. But neurons bundle
together to form nerves. The largest nerve in the entire body—the sciatic
nerve—is the same width as a thumb at its widest point, and it stretches from
the lower back to the very tip of the big toe. Each sciatic nerve stimulates
movement of the leg muscles and carries messages between the leg and spine.
SCIATICA
Pain in the sciatic nerve, often called

sciatica, is very common. It can include
pain, weakness, and/or decreased
sensation. Although sciatica has many
causes, the most common is an injury
to a disc in the spinal cord.
40
] All neurons share the same basic anatomy:
Y The cell body, or soma, which includes the nucleus containing the
genetic material of the cell: chromosomes. The cell body coordinates all
of the neuron’s different functions and keeps the cell alive.
Y The dendrites, which receive information from other neurons and then
convey it to the cell body.
Y The axon, which carries information away from the cell body to the
other end of the neuron and then on to other neurons.
] The axon is covered with a layer of fatty tissue, called the myelin sheath,
which helps speed up the transmission of information. Myelin is essential
for normal motor function.
] At the time of birth, there’s very little myelin, but during infancy, many
axons develop myelin sheaths. This development corresponds with
increasing cognitive and motor skills, such as speaking, crawling, and
walking.
41
The Roles of Neurons

] Although all neurons have the same fundamental structure, they play
distinctly different roles in terms of the type of information they transmit.
For instance, sensory neurons transmit information from sensory cells, or
receptors, to the brain. They have specialized endings that receive signals
for light, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
] Motor neurons transmit commands from the brain to the glands or

muscles, typically through the spinal cord. They have especially long
axons, allowing individual nerve cells to reach from the base of the spine to
the end of long muscles at the end of your limbs. This means that a motor
neuron in the spinal cord that reaches the toes might be three feet long.
] Interneurons connect other neurons to each other. For instance, when a

woman reads a text message on her phone, the signal from the sensory
neurons in her eyes would travel to interneurons in her spinal cord
and then on to her brain so she can make sense of the words. Other
interneurons then signal to the motor neurons controlling her finger
muscles to let you type a response.
] A fourth type of neuron specific to the brain, the mirror neuron, was
discovered in 1996. Mirror neurons respond the same when we perform
an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action.
Examples include feeling the need to yawn when we see someone else yawn
or flinching when we see an athlete take a hit during a game. Because
mirror neurons allow us to respond to what other people are thinking and
feeling, they allow us to empathize with those around us.
42
STEM CELLS
Neurons of all kinds are created by stem cells, which can

grow and develop into any type of cell depending on the
specific chemical signals they receive. One of the most
exciting developments in the field of neuroscience over the
last few years is that new neurons can be formed throughout
the lifespan, thanks to replacement therapy for brain or
nerve cells that have died. This opens up various possibilities
for helping people recover from serious neural injuries and
diseases.
How Neurons Communicate

] Neurons use both electrical impulses and chemical messages to convey
information. First, the dendrites receive electrical signals from our senses
or from chemical messages from other nearby neurons. If these messages
are sufficiently strong, the neuron fires, meaning it sends the information
all the way down the axon and on to other neurons. This is called an
action potential.
] When the neuron fires, it releases chemicals known as neurotransmitters

into the synapse, a space between the axon of one neuron and the
dendrites of another. The neurotransmitters then attach to specific
receptor sites on the dendrites of the nearby receiving neuron. Think of
neurotransmitters as keys that activate particular receptors, or locks. The
right neurotransmitter is required to match to the right lock to have a
particular effect.
43
Types of Neurotransmitters
] There are many different types of neurotransmitters. Each has somewhat
different effects on the body. The following are a few of the most important.
] Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter in the nervous system.

It is involved in cognition, learning, and memory. Too little glutamate
leads to difficulties, including with concentration and feelings of mental
exhaustion. But too much glutamate is equally problematic: That can
damage neurons.
] GABA plays an important role in reducing feelings of anxiety, stress, and

fear. Manufactured drugs like Valium and alcohol work by binding to
GABA receptors to reduce anxiety.
] Dopamine influences thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behavior. Too

much dopamine is seen in people with schizophrenia. Too little is seen in
people with Parkinson’s disease.
] Serotonin is involved in regulating mood, sleep, eating, arousal, and pain.

Too little serotonin in the brain is linked with severe depression. Many
antidepressants are serotonin uptake inhibitors, which work by blocking
the ability of neurons to reabsorb serotonin that is leftover in the synapse,
allowing levels to stay higher in the body.
] Acetylcholine is one of the most abundant and important

neurotransmitters. It’s found in all motor neurons and is involved in all of
the body’s movements. It’s also found in many brain neurons and plays an
important role in learning and memory. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease
show depleted levels of acetylcholine. Drugs and substances that interrupt
acetylcholine’s function can cause serious problems.
] Endorphins elevate mood and reduce pain. Endorphins are responsible for
the “runner’s high” some people get while exercising.
44
AGONIST AND ANTAGONIST DRUGS

Knowledge about how neurotransmitters communicate and their
effects has led to the development of drugs that either enhance
or inhibit the effects of particular neurotransmitters.
Agonist drugs are substances that bind to a receptor and trigger

a response that mimics or enhances a neurotransmitter’s effect.
Drugs like morphine and heroin decrease pain by binding to the
same receptors used by the endorphins.
Antagonist drugs are substances that bind to a receptor and

triggers a response that blocks a neurotransmitter’s effect.
The drug naloxone, for instance, works by binding to the same
receptors as opioids, which blocks opioids from attaching.
Naloxone can even displace the opioids that have already
attached, reversing their dangerous effects on breathing, as
long as it’s administered in time.
45
Hormones and the

Endocrine System
] In addition to the nervous system use of neurons and neurotransmitters to
send messages, a second set of messages are also being sent by the endocrine
system throughout the body. The endocrine system is a collection of glands
that secrete chemicals known as hormones into the bloodstream.
] The pituitary gland in the brain is usually considered the primary or

“master” endocrine gland because it releases hormones that activate the
other endocrine glands. Those other glands include the thyroid (in the
neck), the thymus (in the chest), the adrenal glands and pancreas (near the
kidney and stomach), and the gonads (ovaries and testes).
] The endocrine system helps maintain regular short-term bodily processes

such as digestion and elimination. It also helps regulate long-term
bodily processes such as growth and the development of secondary sex
characteristics at the time of puberty.
46
SIMILARITIES IN FUNCTION
Some hormones work like neurotransmitters, and some

neurotransmitters work in some ways like hormones. For
example, the hormones progesterone and estrogen can
also bind to specific receptors, just like neurotransmitters,
leading to very fast effects. And certain neurotransmitters,
such as dopamine and serotonin, also work as hormones,
regulating the release of various other hormones by the
pituitary gland.
Types of Hormones
] Different hormones each play a distinct role in how the body functions.
The following are some examples.
] Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, is the hormone that increases

physiological arousal. It helps our entire body quickly prepare to respond
in times of immediate stress by increasing heart rate, elevating blood
pressure, and boosting available energy.
] Cortisol also helps the body respond to stress, but in a more sustained way.
Cortisol controls blood sugar levels so the body has enough energy. It also
reduces inflammation and suppresses nonessential processes.
] Testosterone, in both men and women, triggers the creation of new blood
cells, increases bone strength and muscle development, and leads to sexual
desire. In men, testosterone is responsible for triggering post-puberty
change in the body and sperm production. Higher testosterone also
predicts riskier behavior in a variety of different settings.
47
] Estrogen’s main
function is to A BIDIRECTIONAL LINK
help regulate and
maintain the female The link between hormones and
reproductive system behavior is bidirectional: Hormones
and to trigger the influence behavior, but behavior
development of female also influences hormones.
post-puberty changes
in the body. Estrogen
levels also influence
emotional well-being.
] Oxytocin is often referred to as

Reading
the bonding hormone. Oxytocin
Lieberman and Long,
levels climb after various types of The Molecule of More.
nurturing behaviors, including Sapolsky, Behave.
hugging a loved one.
48
Understanding and
Managing Stress
This lesson’s topic is stress. The same

stressful event can lead to different
physical and psychological effects
on different people. This why some
people seem to thrive on stress, and
others become debilitated. Helping
people respond to stressful events in
a more positive way can lead to better
physical and psychological well-being.
6
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
49
Lesson 6 | Understanding and Managing Stress
Causes of Stress
] Many factors can cause stress. One of the major sources of stress is our
relationships. Conflict with friends, family members, and spouses all cause
stress. Good events also create stress. The reason is that change is stressful,
and even welcome changes like getting married can disrupt our existing
lives in many ways. Additionally, for most people, work involves stress.
] Beyond our immediate personal and professional environment, factors

within the broader environment also contribute to stress. This can include
long-term stressors, such as living in a community with high levels of
crime, noise, or pollution. It can also include shorter-term cataclysmic
events that can be particularly stressful, such as natural disasters, terrorist
attacks, and mass shootings.
The Effects of Stress

] Regardless of the specific factors causing stress, stress can be directly
damaging to a person’s health. People who are under stress have a greater
risk of developing many different illnesses and diseases, including ulcers,
diabetes, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, asthma, headaches, hives,
back pain, and cardiovascular diseases.
] In some cases, experiencing stress may lead to potentially fatal

consequences. For example, stress-induced cardiomyopathy refers to a
medical condition first observed in the early 1990s in which a person
appears to be having a heart attack.
] This condition, informally known as broken-heart syndrome, is brought

on by a surge of stress hormones, leading to chest pain and trouble
breathing. But these symptoms are triggered by an intense physical or
emotional event.
50
] In some cases, broken-heart syndrome can be fatal. A 2014 study published

in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people age 60
and over who experienced the death of a spouse were two times more likely
to experience a heart attack or stroke in the month following this loss than
married people who did not experience this loss.
51
The Problem with Stress

] The problem is that our body’s natural physiological stress response is
designed to help us respond to extreme, life-threatening situations, like
when a person is being chased by an aggressive dog or is in combat during
war. But we also show this same physiological stress reaction even in
situations that are not actually life-threatening.
] When we first notice any kind of threat, our sympathetic nervous system
and our endocrine system are stimulated, leading to increases in two
hormones: adrenaline (or the more technical name of epinephrine) and
norepinephrine (also called noradrenaline).
] The physiologist Walter Cannon, working in the early 1900s,

demonstrated that increases in these hormones in the bloodstream
activate the cardiovascular system, so that blood is directed to the brain
and muscles. This is what prepares someone to either fight off a threat or
run away—the fight-or-flight response.
] This original fight-or-flight model was extended in 1936 by the Hungarian

endocrinologist Hans Selye to describe not just our immediate response
to a threat but the stages the body goes through over time. This model,
known as the general adaptation syndrome, describes three stages of what
Selye was the first to call stress.
The Three Stages

] The first stage in the stress response is fight-or-flight, also known as the
alarm stage. In this stage, the body is mobilizing all of its resources to do
whatever is necessary to fight off (or escape from) the immediate threat.
52
During this phase, both epinephrine and norepinephrine are released into
the bloodstream, triggering increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and
breathing rate.
] If the stressor lasts more than a very short time, a second system, often
called the HPA axis, releases an additional hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol releases extra glucose into the bloodstream for immediate energy.
But it’s also involved in stopping or slowing down processes that do not
help fight off an immediate threat, such as digestion, reproduction, and
even the immune system.
] Next is the resistance stage. During this stage, the body releases less of
the alarm-stage hormones in response to the threat. Heart rate, blood
pressure, and breathing are all still elevated to help deliver oxygen and
energy quickly throughout the body, but they are subsiding. Nonessential
functions, such as digestion, growth, and reproduction, may resume, at
least partially.
] This is the stress response to more typical daily life stressors like
interviewing for a new job, having a conflict with a friend,
or getting stuck in traffic. However, in other cases, the
stressors and the stress response can continue over
long periods of time. This could include the stress of
living in poverty, constant interpersonal conflict,
or intense work
pressure.
53
] The exhaustion stage sets in when the threat—either real or perceived—

persists for a long time, resulting in the body experiencing a prolonged
state of physiological and/or psychological activation. In the exhaustion
stage, maintenance operations have been delayed so long in response to
stress that the body experiences extra wear and tear on multiple systems,
including the cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune systems.
] Prolonged stress can also lead to nutritional imbalances, such as low

magnesium, which reduces the body’s ability to produce and use energy.
And as the body’s resources are depleted, this further increases the risk of
developing an infection or disease that the body would otherwise typically
be able to fight off.
] Stress also has indirect effects on health. During times of stress, most
people stop engaging in behaviors that actually promote health, such as
exercising. They may also start engaging in behaviors that hurt health:
eating more high-fat and sugar foods, drinking alcohol, getting less sleep,
and so on. These behaviors, in turn, weaken the body’s immune system.
More Recent Discoveries

] More recent findings have led to important updates to our model of stress.
For example, Cannon’s original fight-or-flight model was updated to
include the possibility of a freeze response in the face of threat—that is,
becoming immobile.
] In addition, health psychologist Shelley Taylor published a groundbreaking

paper in 2000 that shed light on another approach to managing stress:
connecting with others. This model, tend-and-befriend, was based on a
review of rodent, primate, and human studies showing that evolution led
to gender differences in stress response.
54
] Her review noted that fleeing from a

stress would be less viable for a woman
who is nursing or taking care of an
infant. Taylor also noted empirical
research showing that during
times of stress, women prefer to
connect with other women,
whereas men prefer to
be alone.
Psychological Effects of Stress

] The scientific evidence is clear: Stress can lead to serious and lasting
psychological effects, including fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, and intense
loneliness. Following a trauma, such as serious injury or sexual assault,
the psychological effects can be even more serious. Effects can include
intrusive thoughts, difficulty sleeping, and feelings of numbness and
dissociation.
] When these reactions occur immediately after the event or at least within
the first month, it is known as acute stress disorder. When the reactions
linger longer than a month, or first emerge more than a month after the
event, the disorder is known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
] Although many people who experience an extreme event develop disruptive

symptoms, these typically fade within days or weeks. But for people with
PTSD, these symptoms continue for more than a single month and can
become chronic, causing significant distress and difficulty functioning
in daily life. They can include severe anxiety, feeling on edge, bursts of
anger, and constantly reliving the event through memories, flashbacks, and
nightmares.
55
The Transactional Model

] Notably, among people who all experience the same traumatic event to the
same degree, the risk of experiencing PTSD varies. The idea that different
people can experience and react to the same event in very different ways led
to a new psychological theory, the transactional theory of stress and coping.
] This model, developed by Richard Lazarus in the 1960s, says that the
meaning a particular event has for a person is a sort of personal transaction
with the environment—not merely the same for everyone. In fact, this
meaning is regarded as a more important predictor of the experience of
stress than the actual event.
] According to the transactional model, the amount of stress people

experience is based on their assessment of two factors: their assessment
of the stressors (called primary appraisal) and their assessment of the
resources they have to cope (called secondary appraisal). This model was
the first to describe how shifting one’s emotional reactions to an event in a
positive direction can be an important part of managing stress.
Coping with Stress

] While different people can see and react to the same thing in different
ways, we all have the opportunity to view stress as a repeated, normal,
nonthreatening part of daily life. We could see stress as exhilarating and
invigorating—as giving the body extra energy to respond effectively to
various daily life challenges.
] Stress is unavoidable, but we can choose to respond to stressful situations

in a new way—by changing our thoughts and behaviors in ways that
reduce its detrimental effects on happiness and health. However, it’s
important to keep in mind that all stressors are not the same.
56
] Instead, different strategies are most effective for managing different

stressors. People who learn a variety of different types of strategies are
better equipped to manage the different stressors that come their way.
] The following are the stress-reduction strategies most supported by

empirical research.
Y Relax. Stress leads to bad health outcomes precisely because it creates

physiological arousal and increases levels of cortisol, which exerts
additional wear and tear on the body and suppresses the immune
system. A countermeasure can be relaxation techniques like deep
breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation.
Y Change the stress mindset. It is helpful to try to save one’s real stress
response for things that are literally life-or-death and not the relatively
small hassles of daily life.
Y Find a friend. People with more social support are better able to cope
with the minor and major stresses of daily life.
Y Look for any silver lining. It is possible for us to think about moderate
levels of acute stress in a new, more positive way: as energizing and
inspiring, not just exhausting and debilitating. The process of reframing
stressful situations to find something positive does not happen
automatically, but making a deliberate effort can help over time.
Y It can also be helpful to find some people who tend to see things in
a more optimistic light and try to model their reaction. People who
reframe their acute stress response can reduce their chronic stress levels
and show better psychological and
physical well-being. This effect can
be contagious, in a good way. Reading
Sapolsky, Why Zebras
Don’t Get Ulcers.
Van der Kolk, The
Body Keeps the Score.
57
Sensation:
How You Gather
Information
The focus of this lesson is sensation,

which is related to but different from
perception. Sensation describes
physical input about the environment
received by various sensory receptors
in our eyes, ears, nose, and so on.
Perception is the process by which
we make sense of this input—that is,
how the brain automatically selects,
organizes, and interprets these
7
sensations. Sensation is largely a
physical process, whereas perception
is heavily influenced by psychology.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
58
Lesson 7 | Sensation: How You Gather Information
The Process of Sensation

] Sensation starts with specialized receptor cells located in our sense organs:
our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. First, we detect some stimulus in the
environment, like a robin flying outside the window. We then take in that
sensory information and convert it in our brains to neural impulses. This
process is called transduction.
] For each of our five senses, the exact same process occurs: Sensory
receptors take in some form of energy, such as light energy or sound waves.
These receptors then convert the energy from this stimulus into neural
impulses, which are sent on to different parts of the brain, such as the
primary olfaction area or the primary audition area.
] However, not all sensory information is sent on for processing in the brain.
Instead, the information we receive from the environment is first analyzed
and filtered in a process called sensory reduction. This filtering prevents
our brain from being overwhelmed by all of the sensations we’re constantly
exposed to.
Detecting Stimuli
] The field of psychophysics examines the links between the physical
characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them. An
important question here is: What determines whether we can detect a
particular stimulus of light, sound, smell, and so on?
] One factor is the amount of the stimulus present. The absolute threshold
refers to the minimum amount of stimulation necessary to be able to
consciously detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
59
] Another type of threshold, a difference threshold, refers to the smallest

physical difference between two stimuli that is consciously detectable
50% of the time. This threshold is also called the just noticeable
difference, and it examines whether someone can distinguish between
two similar stimuli.
] But our ability to detect something in

the environment is also influenced
by psychological factors,
including our motivation,
expectations, and experiences.
For instance, new parents may
be particularly attuned to the
slightest sound their baby
makes during the course
of the night, while more
experienced parents may
have become habituated not to
notice such noise at all.
] There are also some careers where people learn to detect a particular
stimulus amidst a sea of background noise. As an example, traffic
controllers have to be able to detect and follow particular planes and ignore
the other signals that appear on a radar screen.
] After we perceive a stimulus, we may become less and less aware of it over
time. That’s because the receptor cells that initially respond to a stimulus
eventually become tired and stop responding to constant stimulation. This
process is known as sensory adaptation. Sensory adaptation helps free up
our attention and resources so that we can focus instead on what’s new or
different in an environment.
] One exception is that we don’t adapt in the same way to the sensation
of pain. After all, ignoring pain can have serious, even life-threatening,
consequences.
60
Vision
] Humans rely most heavily on vision to understand and interpret the world.
We can receive and process visual information with remarkable speed. For
instance, a professional baseball player can hit a baseball four-tenths of a
second after a pitcher throws it from 60 feet away. Additionally, we rely on
vision so heavily that vision usually wins out if there’s a conflict with other
senses.
] This is how vision works: What we see starts when light waves enter
the eye through the cornea, then pass through the pupil and onward to
the retina. In the retina, light waves are converted by the process called
transduction into neural impulses, thanks to two types of vision receptor
cells: rods and cones. Finally, the optic nerve carries these neural impulses
into the visual cortex in the brain.
] Common vision problems such as nearsightedness clearly run in families,

with most evidence pointing to the role of genetics. There is also evidence
that points to environmental factors. For instance, one study found that
people who had spent the most time in the sun, particularly between the ages
of 14 and 19, were 25% less likely to have developed myopia by middle age.
Seeing Color
Research shows that
] One of the most remarkable aspects
color can have a
of human vision is our ability to powerful effect on our
see color. Except for the 2% of the thoughts, feelings, and
population with color-blindness, behavior. Even very
our difference threshold for colors subtle sensations in the
is so low that we can discriminate environment can have
between some 7 million different meaningful effects.
color variations.
61
] The original theory of vision, known as the trichromatic or Young-

Helmholtz theory of color vision, described color vision as resulting from
three types of receptors in the cones of the retina: one sensitive to the color
green, another to the color blue, and the third to the color red. According
to this theory, these three receptors stimulated in some combination
produce all of the colors we can see in the world.
] Some critiques have been raised about the ability of this theory to
explain why we see some combinations of colors clearly, but not others.
For example, we can see greenish-blue or blueish-red, but we don’t see
yellowish-blue or greenish-red.
] Our ability (or inability) to see certain color combinations led to the
development of the opponent-process theory of color vision. According
to this theory, color vision results from three different receptor systems,
which each contain two color opposites: red-green, blue-yellow, and
black-white.
] According to this theory, receptor cells can only detect the presence of one
of the colors in a pair at a time. Some neurons are turned on by one color
(such as red) but are then turned off by its color pair (green, in the case
of red).
] This theory explains why we can’t see greenish-red: The opponent cells can
only detect one of these colors at a time. This theory also explains red-
green color-blindness: People are missing the red-green receptor system.
] Both theories of color work together to fully explain color vision. Color
processing occurs in two stages: Within the retina, in line with the
trichromatic theory, different cells detect different wavelengths of light.
But the opponent process theory explains how these cells then connect to
the nerve cells that determine how we actually perceive a color at a neural
level in the brain.
62
Sound
] Sound waves vary in
length, or frequency,
and height, or amplitude.
The auditory, or hearing,
system works in some ways
that are quite similar to the
visual system. More frequent
(or shorter) waves have a higher
pitch. Longer waves have a lower pitch.
] Amplitude, or loudness, of sound is measured in terms of decibels.

The absolute threshold for hearing is 0 decibels, with every 10 decibels
corresponding to a tenfold increase in sound. A whisper is about 25
decibels, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels, and a subway or train
is about 100 decibels.
] The outer ear channels sound waves produced by air molecules through
the auditory canal, causing the ear drum to vibrate. These vibrations
then travel to the inner ear, which generates neural signals that are sent to
the brain.
] Hearing, at perhaps the most basic level, can alert us to potential danger.
We also form fast impressions of people based merely on the tone of their
voice. For instance, in one study, political scientists recorded both male
and female voices saying this sentence: “I urge you to vote for me this
November.”
] Then, the scientists digitally altered the pitch of the recordings. They
created a range from a low baritone to a high soprano. Next, 400 people
listened to either the male or the female voices. They consistently rated the
deeper voices of both male and female speakers as more electable.
63
Smell and Taste

] Smell and taste are described as
chemical senses because they
both rely on specialized
chemoreceptor cells. This
means they process chemical
stimuli, such as odors in the
air and tastes in the mouth,
and relay that information on to
the nervous system.
] Smell and taste receptors are

located near each other and
closely interact. This is why we
often can’t taste food well when our
sense of smell is reduced by having a cold.
] We have more 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors in our nose,

allowing us to detect more than 10,000 distinct smells. Importantly, smell
plays a unique role in evoking memories and feelings. The part of the brain
that processes smells is closely linked to parts that process memory and
emotion. This is why particular odors can often trigger memories.
] In contrast to the thousands of different odors we can smell, we can only

detect five distinct tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami, the final of
which refers to a delicious or savory taste. With age, the number of taste
buds decreases, as does sensitivity to taste. This is one reason why children
often do not like strong-tasting foods: Food tastes more intense.
] Taste is probably our least critical sense overall, but it teams up with smell,
touch, and visual cues—that is, the appearance of food. This is one reason
why many fancy restaurants focus intently on food presentation.
64
Body Senses
] In addition to the chemical senses of smell and taste, we have three
important body senses: vestibular, kinesthetic, and tactile. Our vestibular
sense provides information about our body’s movement, and it helps us
maintain balance and body posture. The sensory organs that process this
sense are located near the inner ear. They respond to the head’s movement
as well as gravitational forces.
] The kinesthetic sense refers to the perception of body movements such as the
position and movement of our arms and legs when riding a bike. Kinesthetic
receptors are found throughout the muscles, joints, and tendons of the body.
These receptors tell the brain which muscles are being contracted or relaxed,
when a person is carrying something that is too heavy, and so on. We use the
kinesthetic sense anytime we’re engaging in a physical activity.
] The third body sense is touch. Touch is a mixture of four sensations:

pressure, warmth, cold, and pain. Our sense of touch is controlled by a
huge network of touch receptors in the skin. The concentration and depth
of these receptors influences how different types of touch feel. The touch
receptors are most concentrated on the face and in the fingers.
65
The Importance of Touch

] From the very beginning of life, touch plays an essential role in stimulating
growth and development. For instance, skin-to-skin contact helps babies
grow and is especially beneficial for premature babies. Touch reduces stress
on the cardiovascular system, lowering heart rate and blood pressure,
among other benefits.
] These physiological effects help explain why touch reduces pain and
protects us from illness. People who hold hands with their romantic
partner show lower levels of pain during a laboratory procedure involving
high levels of heat. People who get more hugs each week are less likely to
become sick, even when a cold virus is directly inserted into their bodies.
] These findings don’t suggest that all touch is good. But on a very
fundamental level, humans are clearly wired to form connection with those
around us, and physical touch plays a very
important role in forming and maintaining
these interpersonal bonds.
Reading
Linden, Touch.
Lobel, Sensation.
66
Perception:
Illusions and
Interpretations
How we perceive the world is often

driven less by our objective reality
than by psychological factors that
influence our interpretation of the
world—that is, our perception, which
is the focus of this lesson. We process
various types of sensory information:
8
sights, sounds, smells, taste, and
touch. But we don’t just take in all of
this sensory data as individual parts.
Instead, we organize these sensations
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
into meaningful perceptual units.
67
Lesson 8 | Perception: Illusions and Interpretations
Illusions
] Our perceptions are usually in line with our
sensations. But in the case of perceptual
illusions, errors in the perceptual process lead
to false or misleading impressions.
] For instance, in the Ponzo illusion, two

horizontal lines of the same size are
stacked one above the other inside two
vertical lines that converge at the
top of the image. We perceive the
top horizontal line as appearing
larger than the bottom line due
to the effect of the converging
vertical lines.
] One of the most famous real-world optical illusions is that of the desert
mirage, which appears to be a pool of water on the horizon. A mirage is a
naturally occurring illusion that happens when the ground is very hot and
the air is very cool.
] When light rays move through cold air and into the hot air just above
the ground, the waves are refracted toward the sky before reaching the
viewer’s eye. The viewer actually seeing a distorted image of the blue sky,
and that’s what appears to be water.
68
PROSOPAGNOSIA
People who have a rare condition known as

prosopagnosia, or face blindness, have problems in parts
of the brain with feature detectors that are
activated in response to faces. People
with this condition can recognize that
they are seeing a face,
but they are unable to
distinguish between
different faces—even
their own.
How Perception Works

] Perception begins whenever we select something we are going to pay
attention to in a given environment. We do that because in all situations,
we are surrounded by much more sensory information than we can
possibly turn into perceptions.
] This process of sensory reduction—also known as selective attention—

involves filtering out and attending only to your highest-priority sensory
messages. For instance, a person at a cocktail party might choose to focus
on a conversation they’re having and to ignore the other sensations present.
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] What exactly the brain attends to is influenced by psychological factors,

such as needs, desires, and expectations. A partygoer who is hungry might
pay less attention to the conversation they’re having and focus instead on
trying to catch the eye of the person passing around a tray of appetizers.
This process of selective attention is made easier by specialized neurons in
the brain that respond only to specific characteristics of visual stimuli like
angles, shapes, edges, or movements.
Organizing Information
] After we’ve figured out what we want to pay attention to in a given
situation, we also have to organize that information in some meaningful
way. First, we have to perceive objects as separate from other stimuli and as
having a distinct and meaningful form.
] Early in the 20th century, so-called Gestalt psychologists were among the
first to study how the mind organizes sensations into a perceptual gestalt—
the German word meaning “form” or “shape.” They recognized that we
automatically organize isolated objects we see in the world to form more
cohesive wholes.
] The most fundamental Gestalt principle of organization is our ability to

distinguish an object from its surroundings—the figure from the ground.
Other Gestalt principles of perceptual organization focus on how we
automatically group stimuli together based on various features. These
features can include:
Y Similarity. We group similar objects together.
Y Proximity. We group objects that are near each other together.
70
Y Continuity. We perceive continuous, smooth, flowing lines, even if

dotted lines are actually drawn as jagged, broken lines.
Y Closure. We fill in gaps to perceive an object as a distinct whole.
Perceiving Form and Depth

] We also organize what we see in the world by estimating an object’s two-
dimensional form—its height and width—but also its depth and how far it
is away from us. This ability to perceive depth is innate and is seen even in
young babies.
] Our ability to see depth comes from several visual cues. First, we use
binocular cues, meaning cues that rely on us having two eyes. One of these
cues is known as retinal disparity, which refers to the slightly different
images of the world the retinas on our two eyes receive. When the brain
then compares these two images, their differences help us figure out how
far away we are from the object we are seeing.
] The other binocular cue is known as convergence, meaning the extent to

which our two eyes turn toward each other when we look at an object. If
our two eyes turn toward each other a lot when looking at an object, then
we know the object is very close. When our two eyes barely turn toward
each other, then we know the object is very far away.
] We also rely on monocular cues—meaning cues that only rely on input

from a single eye—to perceive depth. These cues are regularly used by
artists to indicate depth in paintings. The following are some examples
that can be seen at work in Gustave Caillebotte’s painting Paris Street;
Rainy Day.
71
Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day.

Note the use of interposition, relative
size and height, linear perspective, and
a texture gradient to indicate depth.
] Outside of the world of static paintings, another important monocular cue

we use to determine depth is motion parallax or relative motion, meaning
objects that are farther away from us appear to be moving more slowly. We
understand that when planes in the sky appear to be moving very slowly,
that means they are very far away.
72
Object Stability
] Another way in which we organize visual sensations from the world in a
coherent way is by perceiving objects as stable, even when their appearance
changes. Our adult brains automatically understand that the size of objects
is constant, even when the size of their image on our retina changes. For
instance, people don’t get bigger as they walk toward us and smaller as they
walk away.
] Filmmakers often rely on our shape constancy to create visual illusions to

make some people appear much smaller or larger than they actually are.
For instance, take the Ames room, which is an artificially constructed,
trapezoid-shaped room.
] The walls are slanted to

the right, the floor and
ceiling are placed at an
angle facing forward,
and the right corner of
the room is much closer
to the observer than the
left corner. But the room
appears—based on cues
like the windows and
ceiling height—to be a
normal cube shape.
] This leads the person in the right corner to appear much larger than the
person on the left. This room illusion is found in many amusement parks
and was used in The Lord of the Rings films to make the hobbits appear
smaller than other characters.
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Interpreting Sensory Information

] Organizing sensory information from the world into coherent and
meaningful units is an important part of perception. But perhaps the most
fundamentally important part of perception is the final stage: how we
interpret that information.
] Our interpretation is influenced in part by context or frame of reference

effects, meaning environmental factors that trigger particular comparisons.
For instance, someone in Miami might describe a 70° day as chilly whereas
someone in Boston might describe it as warm.
] Our interpretation is also influenced by what psychologists call a

perceptual set, meaning our readiness to perceive things in a particular
way, based on our expectations. A classic demonstration of the power of
our expectations was done a number of years ago, in which researchers
showed people a video of a baby reacting to a jack-in-the-box toy
popping up.
] In some cases, they told people the baby was a boy; in other cases, they told
people the baby was a girl. Although all people saw the exact same video,
they saw the baby’s response as angry if they believed the baby was a boy
but as scared if they thought the baby was a girl.
] Our tendency to “see” things in very different ways based on our

expectations can have serious consequences. Researchers in one study
asked white people to read a scenario in which a Black or white football
player scored a touchdown and then either celebrated that touchdown—
by spiking the ball and dancing—or showed no reaction to scoring. The
participants were then asked to say whether the player deserved a salary
bonus for this touchdown.
74
] White players were

seen as equally
deserving of a bonus
whether or not they
had celebrated their
touchdown. Black
players were judged
as deserving a bonus
only if they had not
celebrated. These
findings, termed the
hubris penalty, show
that the exact same
celebratory behavior is
perceived differently,
depending on the
athlete’s race.
] These findings help

explain why people in
controlled laboratory
experiments are much
more likely to “see”
an ambiguous object,
such as a wallet, as a gun if that object is held by a Black man than a white
man. Even if people themselves don’t believe they hold racist stereotypes,
they are more likely to perceive a Black man as dangerous.
] This can also increase the possibility that police officers shoot Black men
who turn out later to be unarmed. And this example of how our behavior
is influenced by factors without our conscious awareness illustrates
subliminal perception, meaning our ability to detect stimuli below the
absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
75
ENVIRONMENTAL CUES
Research also shows that subtle cues in our environment

can influence our behavior, even if we aren’t paying
deliberate attention to them. For instance, when researchers
played different types of music in a liquor store, they found
that on days when German music played, people bought
more German wine, but the reverse happened when they
played French music. This type of subtle priming is why
advertisers pay to place products in a movie.
The Limits
] It’s also important to recognize the limits of subliminal or subtle primes
on our behavior. Many of these effects are very short-lived, but they can’t
possibly have long-term effects on behavior.
] There’s also no evidence that listening to subliminal audio programs can

help us lose weight or stop smoking. And so-called backmasking—where
an audio message is recorded backward to hide its meaning—has not been
shown to influence behavior.
] Sensation is always necessary for perception. This is why so-called ESP, or

extrasensory perception, is not possible, despite the fact that many people
believe in some form of ESP,
such as telepathy, precognition,
or clairvoyance. Belief in Reading
Chabris and Simons, The
perception without sensation
Invisible Gorilla.
leads to large sums of money
Vedantam, The Hidden Brain.
spent each year on psychics and
mediums.
76
Pain and
Placebos
Whether and how much pain we feel

is not just a function of the physical
sensations we experience. Instead,
as in all cases of perception, how
we think about painful experiences
matters, too. This lesson covers both
pain and the placebo effect.
9
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
77
Lesson 9 | Pain and Placebos
Defining Pain
] The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an
unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or
potential tissue damage.” Medical professionals distinguish between acute
pain and chronic pain.
] Acute pain is intense but time-limited pain that is generally caused by

tissue damage or disease. Broken bones and cuts are examples of injuries
that can cause acute pain. This type of pain typically disappears over time
as the damage heals and lasts less than three months.
] In contrast, chronic pain, which afflicts 20% to 30% of American adults,

might begin as acute pain but does not go away after a minimum of three
months. Migraine headaches, pain caused by arthritis, and some cases of
lower back pain are all examples of chronic pain.
] This type of pain lingers even after specific tissue damage should have
healed. But cases where pain persists despite tissue recovery suggest that
psychological factors may play a role.
THE BENEFIT OF PAIN
An ability to feel pain is generally beneficial for long-term

health and survival. People who are born with an insensitivity
to pain—a condition in which they are unable to perceive
physical pain—often suffer numerous health problems and
die at a relatively young age.
78
Experiencing and Perceiving Pain

] We experience pain when sensory neurons called nociceptors detect some
type of damage to the body. These so-called pain receptors are located
all over the body. When they detect damage, they transmit signals to the
spinal cord and brain. But pain sensations can also be ignored, so how
do pain sensations get turned into perceptions and reach our conscious
awareness?
] The most widely accepted explanation for how we perceive pain is the gate
control theory. According to this theory, when body tissues are injured,
nerve endings in the damaged area transmit impulses to a particular part
of the spinal cord. The nerve fibers that transmit sharp and localized pain
sensations carry information very rapidly. The nerve fibers that transmit
dull or aching pain carry information much more slowly, so it takes longer
to experience some types of pain than others.
] Once these nerve impulses reach the spinal cord, one of two things may
happen. When the pain is not sufficiently intense, a “gatekeeper” in the
spinal cord remains shut, so the pain sensations don’t travel to the brain.
] If the sensations are sufficiently intense, the gate is opened, and the nerve
impulses are sent all the way up to the brain, where they are experienced
as pain. The more signals that reach the brain, the more pain the person
experiences.
] These gates are controlled by chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Some neurotransmitters, such as substance P and glutamate, open the
gate, increasing pain. Other neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and
endorphins, can close the gate, reducing pain. When the gate is open, pain
sensations travel to the somatosensory cortex of the brain, which tells us
exactly where on the body the pain is occurring.
79
Shutting the Gate and

Intensifying Pain
] The gate control theory also proposes that a number of different factors
can lead the gate to close, thereby blocking the transmission of pain signals
to the brain. One way to shut the gate is to increase the stimulation of
nerves at the site of the pain.
] For instance, this is why a person will grab their foot after stubbing their
toe. Additional stimulation—such as pressure, heat, or cold—pushes the
nerve fibers that conduct most sensory signals to shut the gate, which stops
the transmission of pain signals to the brain.
] Psychological factors also play a role. When a person is distracted or

relaxed, the brain shuts the gate. Similarly, athletes in the heat of a game—
and with high levels of adrenaline and flow—may experience a serious
80
injury but not be consciously aware of their injury at the time. In this case,
their psychological state may initially stop the transmission of pain signals,
and they only consciously feel the pain later on.
] Psychological factors can also lead to more pain. When we feel anxious
or scared, signals from the brain’s stress-response system sends messages
down the spinal cord to open the gate, and the pain gets worse. This helps
explain why people who catastrophize, meaning they ruminate about and
magnify their pain yet feel helpless to manage it, experience more intense
pain and use higher levels of pain medication.
] Even subtle factors can affect our overall experience of pain. Nobel Prize–
winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman proposes that our memories of
both positive and negative experiences depend largely on how we feel at the
peak, or more most extreme part, of the experience and at the end of the
experience.
] This is called peak-end theory. In a simple illustration of this point,

researchers found that people asked to put their hand in painfully cold
water for 60 seconds would be more willing to repeat the experience if the
same 60 seconds were prolonged with an additional 30 seconds of pain,
under the condition that the last 30 seconds were somewhat less painful.
The Placebo Effect

] One of the clearest illustrations of the link between cognition and pain
is seen in the placebo effect, meaning a change that occurs when a
person’s expectations or beliefs, rather than an actual drug or treatment,
create an outcome. Placebo effects have been found to influence many
different types of pain, including chest pain, arthritis, headaches, and
postoperative pain.
81
] In one simple demonstration, Europeans with frequent headaches were

given pills labeled either “Nurofen”—a trusted brand name in Europe—or
“Generic Ibuprofen.” Some of the people in each condition were given
actual active ibuprofen and the other half were given placebo pills. Not
surprisingly, those who received generic-label ibuprofen reported greater
pain relief than those who took the placebo.
] However, for the brand-name

label, people reported similar levels
of pain relief regardless of whether
they received actual ibuprofen
under the brand label or a placebo
with only the brand-name label.
Furthermore, those people who
took placebo pills with a brand
name label reported greater
headache relief than those who
took the exact same placebo pills
with a generic label.
] That shows that the label does matter. But it’s not just brand names that
create expectations: Even believing a drug costs more, which we associate
with higher quality, increases its effectiveness.
How the Placebo Effect Works

] The placebo effect is a clear demonstration that our thoughts about pain
and pain relief matter. But how exactly does this work? One explanation
is that when we expect a particular drug or procedure will help reduce our
pain, we may change our behavior in ways that actually lead to beneficial
effects.
82
] Another explanation is that belief in placebos may lead to physiological

changes in the body. Simply believing that a drug will help reduce pain leads
to the release of endorphins, which in turn reduces the experience of pain.
] Some recent research even demonstrates that placebos change how the
brain responds to pain. In one study, researchers gave participants painful
electric shocks to their wrists.
] Before they received the shocks, some people were given a cream that
that they were told would reduce, but not eliminate, the pain. Other
people were given a cream that they told would have no impact on their
experience of pain. In reality, the cream was the same in both conditions
and had no pain-relieving properties.
] The researchers then measured the participants’ brain activity. As

predicted, participants who believed they received a pain-reducing cream
showed decreased brain activity in parts of the brain that respond to pain.
This is a collection of brain areas sometimes called the pain matrix that
includes the thalamus, the somatosensory cortex, the anterior cingulate
cortex, and the insula (or insular cortex).
Reducing Pain
] One of the most important and practical insights from the field of
psychology is in fact the power we have to control the experience of
pain. This finding now influences many parts of health care, including
childbirth classes, preparation for dental procedures, and instructions for
patients recovering from surgery.
] Many strategies to reduce pain involve people changing their behavior. For
example, people whose attention is distracted away from pain in some way,
such as listening to music or reading a book, during medical procedures
consistently report lower levels of pain and even need less pain medication.
83
] One approach known as progressive muscle relaxation involves people

tensing and then releasing each part of their body (hands, shoulders, legs,
and so on) one at a time. This process trains people in ways to relax their
bodies in virtually any situation.
] Progressive muscle relaxation can also be paired with guided imagery,

which focuses the mind on a specific pleasant image. This approach is
designed to help people relax but also to distract their attention away from
the pain.
] A somewhat more complicated approach is biofeedback, in which people

are trained to monitor and change various physiological functions in their
bodies, including heart rate, muscle tension, and brain wave patterns. Over
time, they can then directly train how their own thoughts and behaviors
influence their physiological responses, and control various types of
chronic pain, such as headaches and back pain.
] Behavioral techniques are thought to help reduce in pain in two ways.

Physiologically, they help reduce muscle tension, which can then directly
reduce some kinds of pain. Psychologically, they give people confidence
they have strategies they can use to cope with pain. But this expectation
that their pain will decrease also seems to lead to physiological changes in
the body that in fact make them feel better.
] Yet another psychological approach to reducing pain is the cognitive

method. This approach focuses first on helping people understand
how their thoughts and feelings influence the experience of pain and
specifically how stress and anxiety increase pain.
] Next, people are taught strategies for changing how they think about and
react to pain. Simply increasing people’s confidence that they have some
control over pain can help lessen its severity.
] Many psychological approaches to pain management combine distraction,

behavioral, and cognitive strategies.
84
Stress and Pain

] Stress and pain are two distinct but overlapping processes that, if not
managed, can combine in a vicious circle. Conversely, this interaction
between pain and stress is why strategies for managing stress can also
help with managing pain. This lesson concludes with a look at a few such
strategies.
Y It is helpful to find ways to distract oneself from pain, like watching a

movie, reading, or going for a walk. Dwelling on pain not only makes
the pain worse but also increases the psychological stress response.
Y Keeping active is another strategy, though it is important to make any

necessary modifications. Staying active can reduce the intensity and
duration of pain and may prevent future pain.
Y Nonmedical approaches to managing pain may assist as well. These can

include physical and occupational therapy, massage, or acupuncture.
Mind-body techniques, such as meditation and mindfulness, can
also help.
Y Social support can help take one’s mind off of pain and reduce the
chronic stress response leading to anxiety and depression.
Y Staying positive is useful, too. Catastrophizing merely increases pain.
] A final strategy—and one of the most effective—for reducing pain is in

some ways the easiest: getting enough sleep. In fact, a 2019 study published
in the Journal of Neuroscience found that
insufficient sleep impairs the brain’s
natural ability to relieve pain. Reading
Marchant, Cure.
Vance, Suggestible You.
85
Attention, Sleep,
and Dreaming
This lesson’s focus is on states of

consciousness, which run a gamut
from intense focus, to automatic
processing, to sleep and dreams.
How we switch from one level of
consciousness to another is amazing.
10
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
86
Lesson 10 | Attention, Sleep, and Dreaming
Directing Attention
] In some situations, we focus all of our attention on one task, like when
learning to drive. But even in these cases, when we should be focusing on
one thing, we often find our minds wandering to something else. When
that happens, we often pull ourselves back to the thing we are supposed to
be focusing on. This process—when we catch and then deliberately control
our stream of consciousness—is called selective attention.
] We also do the exact opposite: We deliberately ignore things that are

threatening or anxiety-provoking. An example is a worrisome health
symptom that a person puts out of their mind. The process of deliberately
redirecting our attention away from one thing to something else is called
selective inattention.
] Selective attention and selective inattention are both examples of

consciously choosing what we do and don’t pay attention to. But in other
cases, we aren’t making this type of a conscious choice.
Y There is a well-known study in psychology in which researchers brought

in college students and asked them to watch a video of a basketball
activity. The students were told to count the number of passes between
players.
Y In the middle of the game, a grown man dressed in a full-body gorilla

costume walks through the middle of the activity. At the end of the
activity, the researchers asked students if they had noticed anything
unusual. Half of the students reported not noticing anything.
Y They were so busy counting the passes that they literally didn’t see
a gorilla. This example illustrates inattentional blindness—that is,
blindness caused by not paying attention.
87
] Having our attention pulled—deliberately or accidentally—in a different

direction can also have real and substantial consequences. For instance,
one of the hallmark symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
is having difficulty staying focused, especially on tasks that don’t seem
engaging. Attention is easily distracted by sights and sounds in the
environment.
] In another example, David Strayer at the University of Utah has conducted

a series of studies that consistently reveal how talking on a cell phone
disrupts our ability to drive safely. One of his findings was that talking
on a phone led to much worse driving than listening to the radio or an
audiobook.
] That suggests it’s not just listening to something that causes a problem—
it’s that having a conversation with someone virtually requires us to pay
attention to what the person is saying and to respond. We can mentally
disconnect while listening to the radio because it doesn’t demand
such focus.
States of Consciousness
] During different states of consciousness, our neurons in our brains are
communicating, producing electrical pulses known as brain waves. Brain
waves change according to what we’re doing and feeling. Slower brain
waves indicate we feel tired or sluggish; faster brain waves indicate we’re
feeling wired or hyperalert.
] In our normal waking state of consciousness, beta brain waves are present.
These brain waves indicate our attention is directed in some way. We are
alert, attentive, and engaged in some type of focused mental activity.
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] During times of peak concentration, the brain produces gamma brain

waves. These are the fastest brain waves and indicate we are simultaneously
processing information from different parts of the brain.
] The brain waves of waking life alternate with other types of brain waves
found during sleep—an alternating pattern that’s driven by an internal
biological clock known as the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm
creates a consistent pattern of change in the body on a 24- to 25-hour cycle
and is governed by about a dozen hormones and neurotransmitters.
] For example, our body temperature rises during the night as morning
approaches, peaks during the day, dips for a time in the afternoon—when
people in many cultures enjoy a siesta—and then drops again before we
go to sleep. Any disruptions in the circadian rhythm leave us feeling a
bit groggy. For instance, that’s why we experience jet lag when changing
time zones.
Sleep Deprivation
] People who are sleep deprived have trouble concentrating and learning new
information, which explains why college students who stay up and study
all night before a test are not making a good choice. And sleep deprivation
makes us feel more irritable. That’s why married couples have more
conflict when one or both spouses is overly tired.
] Sleep deprivation can also lead to general health problems. For example,
getting too little sleep suppresses immune cells that fight off viral
infections and hence can lead to more illnesses.
89
DISASTROUS SLEEP DEPRIVATION

The negative effects of sleep deprivation can
contribute to serious accidents. The Exxon
Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the Union Carbide
disaster in India, and the Three Mile Island
and Chernobyl nuclear accidents all
occurred after midnight, when operators
are likely to be most tired. Numerous
plane accidents have been attributed
to pilot error caused by sleep
deprivation.
The Stages of Sleep

] Throughout the night, we pass through a series of four distinct sleep
stages, with brief periods of being more awake as we shift from one stage to
the next. In stage 1 sleep, breathing slows, the body relaxes, and the brain
waves slow and show irregular alpha waves. Alpha waves are basically the
“resting state” for the brain.
] Stage 2 sleep is actually the first stage of real sleep, since in stage 1, people
are really drifting in and out of sleep. In stage 2, the sleeper relaxes more
deeply.
Y Body temperature decreases, heart rate begins to slow, and the brain
shows theta waves, which are slower in frequency and greater in
amplitude than alpha waves.
90
Y Stage 2 also marks the appearance of sudden bursts of rapid brain waves
called sleep spindles. The sleeper is now clearly asleep, although they
can be awakened without too much difficulty.
] Stage 3 is known as deep sleep. The brain emits large, slow delta waves.
These are the same types of brainwaves generated during the deepest
meditation. During this stage, it is difficult to wake someone up. This is
the stage in which sleepwalking occurs.
] About an hour after falling asleep, there is a transition from stage 3 back to
stage 2 and then into rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep. This is the stage
of sleep in which most dreaming occurs.
] The REM stage of sleep is marked by active brain waves. This stage of
sleep is often called paradoxical sleep because the sleeper is definitely
asleep, but their body is in a state of rapid arousal: The heart rate is
elevated, breathing becomes rapid and irregular, and the eyes are darting
around behind closed eye lids. However, the muscles are so relaxed that the
sleeper is virtually paralyzed.
] The most important characteristic of REM sleep is dreaming. This is

thought to be the stage in which most dreaming occurs. Dreams that
occur during REM sleep are often emotional, vivid, and usually story-like.
] Over the course of the night, we move from lighter sleep—stages 1 and
2—to deeper sleep—stage 3. Then, the sleep cycle reverses back up to
lighter stages of sleep before we enter REM sleep. This cycle then repeats
itself about every 90 to 120 minutes, meaning we have about four to five
sleep cycles over the course of the night.
] Over the course of the night, the amount of time we spend in deep sleep
gets shorter, and the amount of time we spend in REM sleep gets longer.
This means that when we sleep for longer periods of time, we spend more
time in REM.
91
Why We
Sleep
] The jury
is still out
on exactly
why we sleep.
Given the state
of the evidence,
it’s likely that
sleep is probably
explained best by
a combination of four
available theories.
] One theory says that sleep evolved as an adaptation to conserve energy and
provide protection from predators. A second view points out how sleep
plays an important role in the process of growth and development.
] A third theory explains why we sleep as a time for physical and mental
recovery: It’s a chance to repair muscles, replace essential chemicals, and
rest the brain from the emotional and intellectual demands of the day.
Fourth, sleep is also important for learning and memory.
Why We Dream
] Another fundamental but unresolved question is: Why do we dream? Once
again, there are a number of different theories and no single right answer.
92
] On average we spend about two hours a night dreaming. These dreams

are most vivid during REM sleep, but dreams can occur during any stage
of the sleep cycle. Some people tend to remember their dreams more than
others, but everyone dreams.
] One of the earliest, most controversial, and least scientific theories to

explain dreaming was created by Sigmund Freud. His wish-fulfillment
theory proposed that dreams represent our unconscious wishes and
thoughts that could be threatening if considered during conscious
awareness.
] Freud believed dreams have two different components. Manifest content

is basically the storyline of our dreams: the images, thoughts, and
experiences. Latent content refers to hidden aggressive and sexual instincts
that we repress from our conscious awareness.
] However, there’s not much empirical support for most of his ideas—with
one important exception. In 2004, a study was published showing that at
least one part of Freud’s theory was correct: We ironically are more likely
to dream of things we are trying our best to ignore. Researchers describe
this phenomenon as the dream rebound effect.
] Two newer theories have contrasting views of the role of dreams. One
theory emphasizes neural-level activation and synthesis. This theory
proposes that dreams are a by-product of random, spontaneous stimulation
of brain cells during sleep, which the brain synthesizes into the coherent
patterns known as dreams.
] A contrasting view to explain why we dream emphasizes cognition.

According to this cognitive theory, dreams help us organize and interpret
our everyday life experiences.
93
Sleep Strategies
] This lesson concludes with some practical strategies for better sleep. Note
that people who have sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, or
chronic insomnia may need to see a specialist. Here are some things
anyone can try to get better sleep:
Y Stick to a schedule. Setting a regular schedule of when you go to bed

and get up is a great way to establish a predictable sleep-wake cycle for
your body.
Y Create a good sleeping environment. Most people sleep best in rooms

that are cool, dark, and quiet. Ear plugs or room-darkening shades or a
noise machine can reduce distractions.
Y Relax. Good pre-bedtime activities for relaxation include taking a bath,

meditating, and reading a book.
Y Turn off electronic devices.
Y Try not to eat or drink much for at least two hours before bedtime.
Reading
Dement and Vaughan, The Promise of Sleep.
Walker, Why We Sleep.
94
Consciousness
Modified: Drugs
to Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become an umbrella

term for a set of behavioral techniques
we can use to alter our consciousness,
whether meditating to relax the mind
or practicing yoga to manage stress.
However, mindfulness is not the
only—or the most common—way to
modify consciousness. This lesson
11
looks at some of those ways as well as
the topic of mindfulness.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
95
Lesson 11 | Consciousness Modified: Drugs to Mindfulness
Drugs and Consciousness

] Most people use some type of drug on a regular basis to change how they
think and feel. Roughly two-thirds of Americans drink coffee, and many
more drink other stimulants, such as soft drinks or caffeinated tea. We
may also, on occasion, use prescription drugs like narcotics to manage
serious pain.
] More than 1 in 10 Americans are using antidepressants at any one point in

time, and that number is 1 in 5 for older Americans. That is a remarkable
change from 30 years earlier, when that number was only 1 in 50.
] Many more people use some type of depressant, such as alcohol or

antianxiety drugs, to reduce stress, anxiety, and sleeping problems.
Depressants trigger the central nervous system to suppress or slow down
normal physiological processes, including neural activity. At relatively low
levels, this reduced responsiveness feels good.
] Stimulants operate in the exact opposite way of depressants: They basically

speed up the central nervous system. This can lead—at least at relatively
modest levels—to positive effects: increased alertness and energy, reduced
appetite, and even exhilaration. But stimulants can have serious short- and
long-term consequences.
] Hallucinogens such as PCP and LSD cause sensory or perceptual

distortions. These drugs can lead users to see, hear, smell, or even feel
things that aren’t actually real. Hallucinogens are believed to cause their
effects in part by affecting particular neural pathways in the brain, such as
those for serotonin and glutamate.
] Opiates work in part by depressing the central nervous system, just like
depressants. But they also excite parts of the central nervous system. They
increase dopamine activity in a reward center of the brain, elevating mood
and numbing pain.
96
Y Over time, the brain becomes reliant on these drugs for stimulation
and stops producing its own natural pain-killing neurotransmitters,
endorphins.
Y This is what makes opiates so addictive—and the withdrawal process so

difficult.
] Given the problems associated with the use of

psychoactive or chemical substances, it’s often
safer and wiser to choose other approaches
to reducing our conscious awareness. Many
simple daily life activities, such as reading an
engrossing novel, can alter consciousness just
by redirecting our attention and fully
engaging our mind. With training
and practice, we can also learn to
use other techniques to alter our
conscious awareness, such as
hypnosis, meditation, and
mindfulness.
Hypnosis
] The term hypnosis describes an altered state of consciousness, which
includes deep relaxation coupled with a trancelike state of heightened
suggestibility. The hypnotist brings people into this state gradually by
using set phrases to help people relax their minds and bodies.
] People who are hypnotized also show a decreased responsiveness to pain.

Hypnosis can be especially beneficial in helping people manage pain in
cases in which patients have considerable fear and anxiety, such as during
dental procedures or childbirth.
97
] Only about 10% of the population is generally categorized as “highly

hypnotizable,” while others are less able to enter the trancelike state of
hypnosis. However, there are other deep relaxation techniques that anyone
can learn to use on themselves.
Meditation
] Hypnosis leads to a deep state of relaxation as well as a trancelike state. But
the benefits of hypnosis can be found—without the heightened openness
to suggestions—simply through practicing meditation, another technique
for reaching an altered state of consciousness. And people can learn to
practice meditation entirely on their own.
] The term meditation describes a group of techniques generally designed

to focus attention entirely on the present. It sometimes involves focusing
intently on a single feeling, such as breath coming in and out of the body,
or a single thought or phrase—a mantra.
] A specific type of meditation, mindfulness meditation, is designed to calm

the mind as well as the body. The term mindfulness refers to an ability to be
fully present in where you are and what you are doing. It includes a focus
on overall relaxation, just like meditation, but also teaches people to slow
down their racing thoughts and let go of negativity.
] Both meditation and mindfulness can help people manage pain, cope
with illness, and improve psychological well-being. People who meditate
regularly report increases in positive emotions and life satisfaction, coupled
with decreases in stress and anxiety. Meditation also improves overall
cognitive functioning.
98
Why Meditation Helps

] It’s less clear why the act of meditating produces such wide-ranging
benefits. One explanation is that meditation helps people manage stress by
relaxing the body and the mind. These changes thereby minimize the wear
and tear on the body that would otherwise result from chronic use of the
physiological stress response.
] Another explanation is that meditation can help disrupt destructive

thought patterns. One of the key features of this technique is an intense
and deliberate focus on the here and now, which can help people break out
of cycles of negative thought that, over time, can spiral into depression.
] Regular meditation may also lead to distinct changes in the brain. First,
meditating leads to a thickening of the cortex, which helps increase
attention and focus.
99
] Brain imaging studies also show that meditation literally relaxes the brain.
The act of meditating requires the person to focus all of their attention
intently on one thing.
] This narrowed focus reduces the number of brain cells that must normally
process all of the different tasks that are competing for attention. Intense
focus on only one thing feels good at a neurological level and explains why
meditating leads to mild euphoria and feelings of timelessness.
] Neuroimaging studies also show other effects of meditation on the brain.

For example, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital compared
brain scans taken from people both before and after they participated in
an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. Their findings revealed
increases in parts of the brain linked with learning and memory, emotion
regulation, self-awareness, and perspective taking.
] Meditation can also result in changes in behavior in daily life. In a

powerful demonstration of the effects of meditation, researchers randomly
assigned people to participate in a three-week course in either mindfulness
meditation or cognitive skills.
] At the end of the course, participants were asked to come into a lab to
complete what they were told was a measure of their cognitive abilities.
When they arrived at the lab, they sat down in a waiting room, where two
other people were already seated. These people were actually accomplices
of the researcher and had been told to stay seated.
] The room only had three chairs, so all three were taken. After a few
minutes, a woman arrived in the room. This person was using crutches and
appeared to be in great physical pain. The other two people continued to
stay seated, fiddling with their phones and completely ignoring the woman
with the crutches.
100
] The question was: Would the person who was waiting to take the test of
their cognitive abilities offer the woman their chair, even while the other
two people ignored her? Only about 15% of the people who took the
cognitive skills class stood up to help her.
] But of those who had taken the meditation course, 50% stood up and
offered their chair. This simple demonstration suggests that meditation
doesn’t just alter parts of the brain that processes kindness and compassion
but that those changes actually predict behavior.
Reading
Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are.
Langer, Mindfulness.
101
Performance
Psychology in
Sport and Life
One of the most important topics in

sport and performance psychology is
how people perform in high-pressure
situations, whether delivering a
crucial speech or batting in the World
Series. Most people in high-pressure
situations feel arousal, a blend of
physiological and psychological
activity. Arousal includes the body’s
12
physical reaction, such as a pounding
heart and rapid breathing, and also the
psychological reaction: how a person
interprets the situation.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
102
Lesson 12 | Performance Psychology in Sport and Life
Framing Arousal
] We can think about arousal as a positive feeling, bringing exhilaration
and intense excitement. We can also think about it as a negative feeling,
bringing anxiety, nervousness, and worry.
] These negative feelings are typically what disrupt performance. Disruptive

feelings can include fear of failure, fear of negative social evaluation, and
fear of physical harm.
] A central question for performance psychology is: When is arousal good?

When is it bad? Different theories answer this question in different and
sometimes even contradictory ways.
Drive-Reduction Theory
] According to drive-reduction theory, which was the first theory to describe
the link between arousal and performance for those with experience, as
arousal increases, so does performance. Athletes who psych up before a
big game are thought to play better, as are highly-accomplished actors or
musicians.
] But this positive correlation between arousal and performance is only

true for people who are already good at the relevant skill or sport. For
people who are new to a given skill or sport, more arousal actually harms
performance.
] Drive theory explains why some athletes seem to perform their best when
the stakes are highest—the so-called clutch players. For example, in the
2015 NBA Finals series, LeBron James, who was playing without injured
teammates Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, was under intense pressure to
help his team.
103
] James played extremely well. He became the first player in NBA history to
lead both teams in points, rebounds, and assists. He received several votes
for the series’ Most Valuable Player Award, even though his Cleveland
Cavaliers team lost to the Golden State Warriors.
] Drive theory has been extended by describing how other people influence,
and sometimes improve, performance. Known as social facilitation theory,
this view was developed by Norman Triplett.
] It posits that the presence of other people creates arousal, which influences
performance in different ways. Again, if a person is good at something,
more arousal leads to better performance; if a person is not very good, it
leads to worse performance.
The Inverted U Hypothesis

] Another theory examining the arousal-performance link suggests that
high arousal does lead to better performance, but only up to a point. This
theory, the inverted U hypothesis, states that the influence of arousal on
performance follows a U-shaped curve: performance is low when arousal
is very low or very high. Performance is highest when arousal is at a
moderate level.
104
] Although there’s generally support for this finding about the benefits
of moderate levels of arousal, the level of arousal that leads to peak
performance may also depend on the particular sport and the skills it
requires. For example, golf requires intense concentration and relatively
small muscle movements, and therefore peak performance may occur at
relatively low levels of arousal.
] Sprinting, on the other hand, requires large muscle movements and high
levels of arousal. Jumping for a rebound could be helped by high levels of
arousal, while shooting a free throw might need a more moderate level.
The Individual Zones of

Optimal Functioning Model
] The models described thus far all describe the impact of arousal and
anxiety on performance as consistent across athletes, at least within a given
sport and at a given skill level. In contrast, the individual zones of optimal
functioning (IZOF) model, which was developed by a Russian sport
psychologist, posits that each athlete has their optimal level of arousal.
] Each athlete has an “individualized zone” that leads to their best

performance; this level could be relatively low for some athletes, but
quite high for others. An important distinction of this model is that
peak performance can in theory occur at any level of arousal. Different
athletes—including those in different sports, at different skill levels, and so
on—will have different optimal levels of arousal.
] The main contribution of the IZOF model is its emphasis on finding

the distinct level of arousal for each individual athlete to achieve peak
performance. This optimal zone is often described as flow, a very positive
state in which a person is fully absorbed in their performance, has no sense
of time passing, and achieves positive results.
105
] The mental state of flow was first studied in depth by the Hungarian-born
psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Through years of research into the
factors leading people who were highly successful in their professions, he
discovered that the secret to their optimal performance was their ability to
achieve a state of flow.
] They consistently reported an ability to frequently and deliberately

experience flow. This state was linked with high levels of creativity and
productivity. Three factors lead to a state of flow: a balance between
challenge and skill, a lack of awareness and self-consciousness, and total
concentration. This state is not exclusive to the domain of sports; for
instance, writers can experience it when writing, teachers can experience it
when teaching, and so on.
] People who are in a state of flow do tend to perform better. But flow is not
the same as peak performance, defined as performing to the best of one’s
ability. Although people who are performing well often report experiencing
flow, simply being in a state of flow does not guarantee outstanding
performance.
Strategies for Improving

Performance
] The different theories explaining the link between arousal and
performance lead to what is perhaps the most important lesson from sport
and performance psychology: that athletes can learn to use strategies to
manage arousal and improve performance. Psychological factors have a
big impact on how athletes perform. One of the key factors influencing
performance is how they manage arousal in high pressure situations.
106
] Many athletes manage feelings of arousal by deliberately changing their

behavior to reduce the natural fight-or-flight stress response. They use
strategies such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and
biofeedback. These techniques all involve helping athletes relax and reduce
arousal.
] Other strategies for reducing arousal focus on managing people’s thoughts,

under the theory that relaxing the mind will help in turn relax the body.
Hypnosis, meditation, and mindfulness are all cognitive approaches. They
involve directing people’s focus and attention in a particular way.
] Athletes generally need to focus on reducing levels of arousal that are

too high, but in some cases, athletes approach an important game,
competition, or performance feeling very low in energy and arousal. To
increase levels of arousal and perform at their best, they can deliberately
engage in behaviors that create arousal, such as jogging, riding a stationary
bicycle, jumping rope, or yelling encouragement to teammates.
107
] Many athletes find listening to music, especially fast music, helpful in

feeling more energized. Coaches often play a role in energizing athletes,
giving a pep talk to increase energy and excitement before a big game or at
half time.
] One of the psychological strategies most commonly used by athletes is

self-talk, meaning verbalizing either out loud or in one’s head specific
thoughts and feelings. This can include motivational self-talk, which helps
athletes build confidence, push for maximum effort, and create a positive
mood. Another strategy that athletes often use is known as thought
stopping, which means stopping negative thoughts and replacing them
with positive ones.
Routines and Performance

] Many athletes create and maintain routines during games and
competitions. These routines could include what they eat or how they get
dressed. Both anecdotal and experimental evidence suggest routines do
help performance. For example, basketball players who follow their regular
pre-shot routine when taking free throws perform with greater accuracy
than those who do not.
] How does creating routines help improve performance? One explanation

is that it creates a sense of structure and familiarity, which in turn helps
focus their attention on these routines instead of on unique features of a
particular event.
] Alternatively, athletes’ mere belief in the power of these routines may

reduce arousal, which in turn improves performance. In other words, these
behaviors are really superstitions, which do work powerfully, but only
because of people’s belief in them.
108
The Use of Imagery

] Probably the most famous type of psychological skill training is imagery,
meaning using one’s senses to create a realistic image or experience in
one’s mind. People often think about imagery as visualization, but this
technique can actually utilize many different senses.
] One of the most important types of sensory imagination for athletes and
dancers is kinesthetic, meaning the sensation of the movement of muscles
and joints. A baseball player might use kinesthetic sense to imagine
rocking back and forth waiting for the pitch and taking practice swings.
] People can also use different imagery perspectives. One option is

internal imagery, meaning a person imagines a situation from their
own perspective. For instance, a baseball player might imagine the ball
approaching and how they would react.
] In other cases, people use external imagery, meaning they imagine a

scene from the perspective of an outside observer. This type of imagery is
basically like watching a movie of oneself performing a specific skill, like
hitting a baseball.
] How exactly does simply imagining something help improve performance?

One theory is that imagining certain motor skills actually activates the
muscles, much in the same way that physical practice does. Another theory
is that imagining helps people understand and acquire specific skills and
movement patterns.
] Imagining can also help athletes learn and practice strategies for specific
situations they may encounter. A softball pitcher might imagine the
different types of pitches she would throw to different players, and a soccer
goalie might imagine how he will react to different types of penalty kicks.
109
] Finally, imagining can be used to help athletes manage arousal—to stay

relatively calm and relaxed—and maintain concentration, especially
during high-pressure moments. For example, it may help athletes stay
focused even after making a crucial mistake, such as falling off the balance
beam, dropping a ball, or missing a free throw.
] Imagining is clearly a useful psychological skill for improving performance,

but it’s also important to recognize its limits. First, it really doesn’t work
for novice athletes. To appropriately imagine the specific sport skills and
movements, a person needs to have a pretty good sense of what these are.
] Second, imagining is most effective for sports that involve more cognitive
components, such as making decisions about which play to run or which
club to use. In these sports, thinking through the different choices one can
make in different situations can really pay off. In sports that rely more on
sheer strength and speed, imagery tends to be less useful.
] Finally, although mental practice is probably better than no practice, it’s

most effective when used in combination with physical practice. In fact,
imagining is particularly useful as a type of mental rehearsal just prior to
physical practice.
Reading
Csikszentmihalyi, Flow.
Wertheim and Sommers, This Is Your Brain on Sports.
110
Cognitive
Development
across the
Lifespan
This lesson’s topic is how cognitive

development evolves throughout the
lifespan. It focuses on how children
develop cognitively. Then, the lesson
focuses on how cognitive function
changes throughout adulthood. It
13
concludes with some positive news
about aging and the mind.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
111
Lesson 13 | Cognitive Development across the Lifespan
Children’s Development
and Jean Piaget
] Much of what we know about children’s cognitive development is based
on work by Jean Piaget. Piaget’s big breakthrough occurred while he was
working in Paris in 1920 to develop questions for children’s intelligence
tests, specifically to figure out at what age children could answer particular
types of questions correctly.
] This process led to an interesting observation: Children at a certain age

consistently gave wrong answers and used the same pattern of reasoning to
arrive at their conclusions. For example, children believed there was more
liquid in a glass that was tall and thin than one that was shorter and wider,
even when they actually saw the liquid being poured from one glass into
another.
] Piaget’s interactions with children of all ages led him to believe that
children actually see the world differently than adults. At the time, this
was revolutionary. Piaget formed a theory of cognitive development, which
proposes that children move through a series of four distinct stages.
] These stages roughly correspond to

particular ages. In the first stage,
known as sensorimotor, children
learn by actions and sensations.
Y They experience the world by

looking at things, touching
things, and putting things
into their mouths. This
stage lasts from birth to
about two years of age.
112
Y The most important cognitive development during this stage is the

development of object permanence, meaning an awareness that things
continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
� In the second stage, preoperational, children are

able to use language and symbols to stand in
for other objects. But children also lack two
fundamental cognitive abilities.
Y First, they are egocentric in their thinking,

meaning they can’t really see things from
another person’s point of view.
Y Second, children at this stage lack the

concept of conservation, meaning they
don’t understand that something
stays the same in quantity even
though its appearance changes.
Y Children at this stage, which lasts

from about two to six years of age,
also show animism, meaning a belief
that objects have thoughts and feelings.
] From about age 7 to 11, children have overcome many of these cognitive
errors and enter a third stage called concrete operational. For example, they
now understand conservation. However, children in this stage still lack the
ability to think about abstract problems.
] Finally, typically around age 12, Piaget believed children reach the final
stage: formal operational, which is what characterizes thinking throughout
adulthood. They can now perform abstract reasoning and logic. They can
use symbols, can solve hypothetical problems, and can solve “if, then”
problems.
113
Updated Research
] Piaget’s theory clearly laid out how thinking changes from infancy through
early adolescence. Further research has also shown that thinking does
evolve over time, like he proposed, and that this process is largely the same
across cultures. However, Piaget was limited in terms of who he studied
and how he conducted his research.
] Subsequent research—relying on more advanced methods of studying

cognitive development—has updated and revised his findings in
various ways.
] First, more current research tells us that very young children have more
cognitive abilities than Piaget believed. For example, researchers now
believe that object permanence unfolds earlier and more gradually than
Piaget realized, with even infants looking for a toy that has disappeared
(although they don’t know exactly where to look).
] It also turns out that given very simple tasks, even preschool children
can gain insight into something from another’s perspective. For example,
preschool children can learn to understand why someone else might be
angry. By age four or five—far earlier than Piaget believed—children no
longer show entirely egocentric thinking.
] Second, the entire framework offered by Piaget’s stages is now understood

to be more dependent on context—not just on chronological age.
Y One of the principles suggested to teachers by the American

Psychological Association in 2015 is that for students, “cognitive
development and learning are not limited by general stages of
development.”
114
Y Instead, it is now acknowledged that younger students can engage

in higher-level thinking in particular domains, especially if they are
supported in these efforts by appropriate materials, capable peers, and
familiar contexts.
] Third, Piaget believed that at around age 12, children attain the same
raw cognitive abilities for formal operational thinking as adults. But
beginning with work by David Elkind, we now know that some aspects
of egocentrism continue even for teenagers—specifically in the form of
egocentrism about the uniqueness of their own thoughts and feelings.
] Egocentrism during adolescence includes two key features. First, an

adolescent typically creates what Elkind in 1967 called a personal fable,
meaning a belief that one is special and different from all other people.
] Second, adolescent egocentrism also leads to the belief that others are
paying close attention to their every move at all times. This heightened and
exaggerated belief in a so-called imaginary audience carefully observing
everything they say and do helps explain why teenagers spend hours
choosing the right outfit and feel mortified if they experience the slightest
embarrassment.
115
] Adolescent egocentrism is often viewed as a negative, but parents—

and their teens—can take comfort in knowing this is a normal part of
adolescent development. Egocentric thinking can help support personal
development and growth. It can also help teenagers develop their own
individual identity. This process is known as individuation, and it is a
fundamental goal of adolescence.
] As adolescents eventually grow out of their egocentricism, relativistic

thinking becomes more common. Awareness increases that some questions
lack any single right or wrong answer and that different people can look at
the same thing in different ways.
Shifts in Age
] Shifts in cognitive skills and abilities continue beyond adolescence and
extend across the life span. Different skills peak at different ages. Speed of
processing peaks around 18 or 19 and then immediately starts to decline.
Short-term memory peaks a bit later 25, with a drop-off occurring about a
decade later.
] Other cognitive abilities, such

as the ability to evaluate other
people’s emotional states,
peak in the 40s or even 50s.
Although researchers aren’t yet
sure what leads to these different
peaks across the lifespan, it
may be a result of changes
in brain structure that
naturally occur with age.
116
] With age, we do tend to solve problems more slowly than when we were
younger and have some trouble remembering information. For example,
older adults take longer to solve a math problem and may have more
trouble remembering the name of a movie they saw. Psychologists refer
to these types of skills that are stronger in our younger years as fluid
intelligence.
] However, older adults score just as well—and sometimes even better—

than younger people on tests of crystallized intelligence. This type of
intelligence describes the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience.
In fact, the peak age for this type of skill occurs in the late 60s or early 70s.
] Additionally, although we often associate aging with memory loss, this

is not in fact typical or normal, especially for people younger than 85.
In fact, only a relatively small number of older adults develop dementia,
which is a neurocognitive psychological disorder and not a normal part of
cognitive development.
] People with dementia experience a general and typically gradual decrease

in the ability to think and remember. Dementia is not an inevitable part
of the aging process, although it does get more common at older ages.
Even among people in late adulthood, those 85 and older, only about 30%
develop dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common type.
Changing Views on Aging

] Aging seems to have an impact on speed of processing but not on our
overall mental abilities. This raises a question: Why do most of us hold
fairly negative beliefs about how thinking deteriorates with age?
] Messages in magazines and television shows and movies overwhelmingly

suggest that aging means becoming more forgetful and befuddled.
Unfortunately, these negative expectations about aging can have real and
117
serious consequences, even though they aren’t accurate. For example,

researchers in one study found that for older adults, reading a single
article emphasizing the loss of memory that occurs with age can impair
performance on a memory test.
] What is so often portrayed as an inevitable decline in cognitive skills

with age is in fact far more a function of societal stereotypes than actual
biological processes. And research in psychology also provides science-
based strategies we can all use to stay mentally strong throughout the
lifespan and counteract the negative stereotypes about aging.
] It is helpful to keep learning. People who regularly engage in mentally-

stimulating activities and learn new things—doing puzzles, taking courses,
and so on—are less likely to develop serious cognitive problems with
memory, including dementia.
] It is also helpful to counteract images offered in the media that bolster

negative stereotypes about aging. Doing so can aid the creation of more
optimistic—and realistic—views about growing older. A good way to
counteract stereotypes is to
keep in mind role models
who achieved great things in
their 70s, 80s, and even 90s.
] For instance, astronaut and

United States senator John
Glenn became the oldest
person to fly in space when,
at age 77, he joined the crew
of the space shuttle Discovery.
Folk artist Grandma Moses
began painting at age 78,
creating her entire body
of work over the next two
decades. GRANDMA MOSES
118
] Clint Eastwood was 83 when he directed the film American Sniper, which
was nominated at the 2015 Academy Awards for Best Picture. He directed
additional films when he was 85 and 89
] Sex therapist Ruth Westheimer released a graphic novel autobiography for

children entitled Roller Coaster Grandma: The Amazing Story of Dr. Ruth
when she was 90. Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior, John Paul Stevens, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg are among those who have served on the United
States Supreme Court into their late 80s.
] Actor-director Carl Reiner published his book, Too Busy to Die, at 96.
Positive role models such as these can be a huge aid whenever negative
stereotypes about aging come up.
Reading
Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl, The Scientist in the Crib.
Jensen and Nutt, The Teenage Brain.
119
How Language
Develops and
Why It Matters
The overall process by which children

learn language is a very complex
form of communication that involves
several sets of rules for using and
organizing sounds and meaning. This
lesson takes a look at the building
14
blocks of language and the process of
learning language.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
120
Lesson 14 | How Language Develops and Why It Matters
Parts of Learning Language

] The average high school graduate knows about 80,000 words, which
averages out to mean that after age one, we learn nearly 5,000 words each
year, or 13 words every day. That means we show remarkable ability and
speed in learning language. The brains of young children are flexible, and
young children spend every waking moment deeply immersed in mastering
the target language.
] There’s wide agreement in the fields of psychology and linguistics about

the essential building blocks and the role of grammar in helping us learn
all languages.
] The basic building blocks include phonemes, meaning the sounds that
make up a language. For example, to say the word short, you need the
sounds /sh/, /or/, and /t/. English has somewhere around 40 different
phonemes, and some languages have as many as 80.
] In addition to sounds, language has another set of building blocks called

morphemes, which are the smallest units that carry meaning. In some
cases, morphemes are whole words, such as I and a.
] But a morpheme can be meaningful even if it’s only part of a single word.
For instance, in English, we add the morpheme pre to indicate something
is happening earlier or before.
] A language also must have a system of rules that govern how we order and
combine words in particular ways to create meaning. One set of rules is
known as syntax, meaning the rules we use to order words into sentences.
Remarkably, even when children are first learning to speak, they are
already following proper rules of syntax.
121
] Another set of rules, known as semantics, governs how to combine words

to create meaning. For instance, we understand that the phrase “I went
out on a limb for you” conveys something different than “Humans have
several limbs.”
Learning Language:
The Nurturist Perspective
] An important question is this: What is the process by which children
develop the ability to use language? According to one theory, known as
the behaviorist or nurturist perspective, babies learn language the same
way they learn anything else: They imitate what others are doing, and
they receive reinforcement for doing so. Children hear their parents using
language, and they imitate the sounds they are hearing.
] However, very young babies—around four months—initially utter a

variety of simple phoneme combinations when they babble often one
consonant with one vowel, repeated over and over, such as bababa. All
babies—those who are hearing different languages at home and even
deaf babies, who aren’t hearing any language—all sound the same. This
suggests that early on, babbling is not just mimicking the sounds they hear.
] Around the age of 10 months, this changes. Babbling becomes more

focused on the language that is spoken at home, suggesting they are in fact
mimicking the sounds they are hearing in their environment.
] According to the nurturist view, babies also get powerful reinforcement for
using language. First, parents and other adults are typically very excited
when babies start using familiar sounds or words.
122
] This excitement
encourages babies
to continue using
some sounds, while
other sounds get
no reinforcement.
Second, and more
practically, being
able to use language
helps babies get
what they want.
Learning Language:
The Nativist Perspective
] According to the linguist, or nativist, position developed by Noam
Chomsky, the environment is not sufficient to explain the process of
language development. He believes the nurturist perspective is naïve.
] First, there’s the speed of acquisition. Children learn words and grammar
at a remarkable speed. Second, children apply the rules of the language
they are learning very consistently, which leads them to make unique
and predictable errors that can’t possibly be from imitating something
they’ve heard.
] Chomsky believes that children have an innate ability to learn language,

which means learning language is different from how children learn other
things like math, science, history, and so on. He proposed that children are
prewired with a neurological ability in the brain known as the language
acquisition device that enables a child to analyze language and learn the
basic rules of grammar.
123
Genie
] Regardless of whatever innate language abilities we may have in the brain,
we have to hear language in order to develop the ability to use it. Part of
our understanding of the importance of exposure comes from a tragic case
study in psychology known as the story of Genie.
] Genie was born to extremely disturbed parents. Her father was very
intolerant of any noise, so Genie was locked alone in a small room from
when she was about 20 months old until she was rescued at age 13. She
didn’t hear any speech. If she made any noise, her father beat her while he
barked and growled like a dog.
] When she was finally rescued, psychologists and linguists provided

extensive hours of special training to help her develop virtually all of the
basic skills that children learn while growing up in the course of daily life.
But despite this considerable effort, Genie was never able to master the
basics of grammar.
] Her sentence structure was always very limited. This tragic story of child
abuse provides important insight into the importance of hearing language
during a critical period in order to develop the ability to produce language.
The Essential Elements

of Learning Language
] We now know there are essential elements of the process of learning
language. One is context. In most cases, hearing a word once isn’t
sufficient for us to learn its meaning.
124
] Children need to hear a word used in several different contexts before

they really understand what it means. This is why we often aren’t typically
aware of how we come to figure out what a word means: It’s often a result
of hearing that word in a variety of different but overlapping contexts.
That helps explain why children who hear more words around them tend
to develop better language skills.
] To examine how family wealth influences language development, Anne

Fernald conducted a study in two communities in Northern California,
one more wealthy than the other. The study found that children from the
wealthier community could interpret familiar words more rapidly—they
had faster processing speeds. The initial disadvantages for kids from poorer
communities snowball, so that they are starting kindergarten well behind
their peers from wealthier areas.
] Where do these differences in processing speed come from? One key factor
is how much language kids are hearing in the home. Kids who hear more
new words have a big leg up in terms of forming a better vocabulary.
] Children in wealthier communities hear more words overall and hear more
different words. In fact, results from one study published in 2017 found
that by age four, children from high-income families hear about 4 million
more words than children from low-income families.
] This finding might seem depressing. However, research about this gap
is also somewhat hopeful: It tells us that kids in lower-income families
can develop better language skills as long as their parents understand the
importance of regularly using language with their kids.
] When parents understand the importance of talking to babies, they can

start using more language. For instance, even simple language usage can
help, such as describing the different steps in making dinner or things seen
outside a window.
125
Language in the Brain

] Fascinating brain research from 2015 provides really important insight
into how hearing language from live people in your environment is so
beneficial. Research using fMRI brain scans on children who are listening
to a parent read a story shows that simply hearing a parent read a story
activates a part of the brain known as Broca’s area, one of the parts of the
brain responsible for language.
� Children whose parents read to them more

often show greater activation in the parietal-
temporal-occipital association
cortex, a part of the
brain responsible for
integrating sound and
visual stimulation.
This finding tells us
that children who are
read to more often
also get more practice
in developing visual
images, which
probably helps
them acquire
language faster.
] However, it’s not just talking and reading to kids that boosts language
development. A 2018 study found that the most important factor is talking
with them, which the researchers call conversational turns. In fact, this
study found that it is the number of two-way conversational turns a child
experiences that best account for differences in their vocabulary and brain
development.
126
Parentese
] How parents speak to children in a particular way also helps children learn
the meaning of words. Psychologists often refer to this style of speech with
the term motherese, but anyone can do it, so a more general term is child-
directed language, or parentese.
] Parentese is grammatical speech with real words, but it involves a distinct

way of saying these words. It uses a slower speed, a higher pitch, and an
emphasis on particular words. All of these techniques help call attention to
particular objects. It essentially tells babies, “This is the important part of
a sentence.”
WASHOE
Given that apes are humans’ closest genetic relative, some

researchers have attempted to teach apes sign language.
In one of the most famous examples, researchers at the
University of Nevada taught a chimpanzee named Washoe
sign language, as though she were a deaf child. When she
was four years old, Washoe could use 132 signs, and at 27,
she could use 240 signs. She also seemed to be able to
put together novel phrases and words, suggesting that she
wasn’t just imitating the signs her trainers used.
] A study published in 2020 reveals that simply coaching parents about the
value of speaking to babies in particular ways can make a big difference.
Researchers at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University
of Washington randomly assigned parents of six-month-old babies to either
a parent coaching condition or a no-coaching control condition.
127
] The coaching condition involved three separate sessions in which parents

were given guidance and feedback on specific communication strategies,
such as using parentese, using language as part of their daily routines,
and engaging the baby in back-and-forth conversations. The researchers
then evaluated both parent and infant speech—gathered through a small
recorder the baby wore in a special vest—several times over the next year to
evaluate whether coaching made a difference.
] Parents who received the coaching did use parentese more frequently,
and that use resulted in more use of language by the child and more
conversational turns. At 18 months, children whose parents received the
coaching knew about 100 words, compared to only about 60 words for
children whose parents were in the control group.
] These children also produced almost twice as many real and clear words,
such as banana and milk. The findings tell us that relatively simple
interventions have the potential to lead to lasting benefits in language
acquisition and cognitive skills.
Reading
Deutscher, Through the Language Glass.
Pinker, The Language Instinct.
128
Attachment Bonds
from Infancy
to Adulthood
This lesson’s topic is attachment.

It begins with a look at how infants
form attachment bonds. Then, it looks
at different types of attachment
styles and how those can affect a
person throughout life. The lesson
concludes with an examination of
15
whether it is possible to change one’s
attachment style.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
129
Lesson 15 | Attachment Bonds from Infancy to Adulthood
Infants and Attachment Bonds

] For the first half of the 20th century, researchers thought that infants were
attached to those who provided nourishment—that is, food. However,
during the 1950s Harry Harlow, a psychology professor at the University
of Wisconsin, made an important—albeit accidental—discovery.
] He was studying learning in monkeys, so to equalize all monkey’s

experiences, he had separated monkeys from their mothers at birth and
raised them in individual cages. The accidental discovery was that the
monkeys became very attached their cloth diapers and were very upset
when the blankets were taken away for washing.
] Harlow was surprised, and he speculated that the soft cloth might be
serving as a substitute for touch typically provided by their mother. He
also recognized that this distress contradicted the idea that attachment was
based on its association with nourishment.
] Harlow investigated further. He eventually found that attachment does not

depend on feeding alone: Physical contact is an essential part of developing
an attachment bond.
] This realization that touch is a crucial part of developing attachment has

led to important practical changes in how hospitals care for premature
babies. For many years, it was thought that preterm infants needed to be
kept in fully sterilized environments to protect them. Hospitals typically
didn’t encourage any touch at all.
] However, research by Harlow and others showing the benefits of touch led
to major changes in how hospitals care for babies. The American Academy
of Pediatrics recommends that all mothers and babies have skin-to-skin
contact within the first few hours of birth and each day thereafter.
130
] This type of contact is especially beneficial for preterm and low

birthweight infants, where it is called kangaroo care. In fact, premature
babies who receive kangaroo care show greater weight gain, fewer
infections, and improved cognitive and motor development.
] Historically, women have been the primary caregiver for children, so this
research is almost always done by examining the attachment bond between
mothers and babies. But the bond could be with a father, a grandmother,
an older sibling, and so on.
A Lack of Attachment
] What are the consequences of a lack of an
attachment figure early in life? Relevant here
is a study involving a Romanian orphanage.
Researchers tested the long-term effects of
that type of institutional care.
] The researchers
chose some babies
who had been living
in the orphanage since
birth and placed them with foster
families in the local community. These
families were given financial support by the
researchers to cover the child’s care. The
children ranged in age from six
months to nearly three years old.
] The researchers then measured all of the children’s development over time.
They also collected data on the same measures from a set of local children
living with their families and who had never lived in an institution.
131
] The kids who had never lived in an institution generally had higher scores
on all of the measures, including cognitive function, motor development,
language development, and social-emotional functioning.
] Within the group of kids who had spent at least some time in an institution,
moving into a foster family was clearly beneficial. Compared to the kids
who stayed in the orphanage, those who began living with a family showed
improvements in language use, IQ, and the ability to express emotions.
] They were also able to form secure attachments with their caregivers.
Those placed with a family before two years of age showed the biggest
gains. Essentially, the less time in institutions, the better in terms of all
types of development. This study illustrates the fundamental importance
of developing an attachment bond with a caregiver early in life who
responds to their needs and protects them from harm.
Types of Attachment
] Although attachment bonds are beneficial for all babies, research by
Mary Ainsworth has shown that the specific attachment bond babies
form with their primary caregiver varies. Her findings came out of a
standard experimental paradigm she created to examine how infants react
to temporary separations from their primary caregiver. This paradigm is
known as the strange situation technique.
Y Here’s the situation: A mother comes into a waiting room with her baby,
and they spend a few minutes playing with some toys. Then, a female
stranger enters the room.
Y After a few minutes, the mother leaves the room, so the baby is left
alone with the stranger. The mother stays away for a few minutes
and then reenters the room. This entire period is videotaped so that
researchers can examine how the baby responds at two crucial times:
when the mom leaves and when the mom returns.
132
] On the basis of studies using the strange situation paradigm, Ainsworth

developed a theory that there are three distinct styles or types of mother-
infant attachment:
Y Secure babies are sad when their mother leaves, but they can be
reassured and consoled by the stranger. They are happy to see the
mother when she returns, and after greeting her, they continue to play
with the toys in the room.
Y Anxious babies are very upset when their mother leaves. They aren’t
able to be consoled by the stranger, and after the mother returns, they
cling to her and won’t leave her side.
Y Avoidant babies don’t seem to notice or care when their mother leaves.
They also don’t seem to notice or care when their mother returns.
] What causes these differences in infant attachment styles? One possibility

is that some babies seem more disposed to forming a secure attachment
than others. In this view, attachment is a function of nature, not
nurture. These differences may be due in part to differences in babies’
temperaments, which appear even in the first few weeks after birth.
] Genetics does seem to play a role in attachment. For instance, researchers

at the University of Iowa found that babies with only long alleles on a
gene responsible for serotonin transport are highly likely to develop secure
attachment regardless of the parenting they receive.
] However, babies with one or two short alleles on the same gene develop
secure attachments only when their mother engages in responsive
parenting. They develop insecure attachments when responsive parenting
is absent.
133
] Babies who receive good parenting learn how to manage their negative
emotions, and they can therefore form a secure attachment bond with a
caregiver. Babies who do not get responsive parenting cannot form a secure
attachment, or at least have more difficulty managing their emotions and
forming other relationships.
] This research also points to how environment, or nurture, influences

attachment. After all, mothers who notice what their babies are doing and
respond appropriately tend to have securely attached babies.
Building Attachment
] The role of nurture—the environment—in influencing attachment styles
helps explain why the distribution of the attachment styles across countries
differs widely. Although secure attachment is the more prevalent type of
attachment style worldwide, the proportion of infants in the two insecure
categories differs in different countries.
] In countries that tend to place a greater emphasis on independence

and self-reliance, such as the United States, relatively more children are
classified as avoidant. In countries that tend to place a greater emphasis on
interdependence and social connections, such as Israel and Japan, relatively
more children are classified as anxious.
] This finding suggests that training new parents in responsive parenting

strategies can pay off. Additionally, in one study, researchers found
that teaching parents how to be
responsive to their babies’ needs can
go a long way toward creating secure
The inability to develop
attachment bonds. an attachment bond
early in life can have
lasting consequences.
134
Attachment throughout Life

] Historically, attachment was talked about entirely from the perspective of
child psychology. But around 1985, two pioneering psychologists asked an
interesting and important question: If the attachment style a person forms
in the first two years of life based on their interactions with a primary
caregiver creates a template for how they think about relationships, then
how does this template influence relationships throughout the rest of
their life?
] To test this question, psychology professors Cindy Hazan and Phillip

Shaver created what they described as a “love quiz” that they published in
a newspaper. This survey asked people about their romantic history. They
also asked people to choose which of three paragraphs best described them.
] The first paragraph describes a person with secure attachment, the second
with anxious attachment, and the third with avoidant attachment. This
study provided compelling evidence that early relationships matter.
] First, the relative frequencies of the different attachment styles reported

by the adults in this study was the same as that typically seen in research
with infants, with about 60% classified as secure, 20% as anxious, and
20% as avoidant. People who reported having a secure attachment model
reported warmer relationships with their parents, suggesting that positive
experiences in childhood carry over into adult romantic relationships.
] There were also consistent differences in how people with different

attachment styles thought about love and experienced romantic
relationships. People with a secure attachment style reported having
positive experiences in prior relationships. They also believed in romantic
love and that love lasts.
135
] People with an anxious attachment styles reported much less positive

experiences. People with an avoidant style also reported more negative
relationship experiences, including a fear of intimacy.
] These different beliefs about romantic relationships also correlated with

the actual length of their relationships. Even after controlling for outliers,
people with a secure attachment model showed an average relationship
length of about 10 years, compared to about five years for those with an
anxious style and six years for those with an avoidant style.
] This study was published in 1987 and was groundbreaking for the field of
psychology. It implied that our earliest relationships with a caregiver don’t
just impact childhood experiences but actually have a lasting influence on
all of our relationships, for the rest of our lives. This finding sparked many
thousands of subsequent studies to try to understand how far-reaching
these effects are.
Beyond Romance
] Attachment styles also have broader implications well beyond behavior
in romantic relationships. For instance, in a work setting, secure people
report greater job satisfaction, feel good about their work performance, and
feel valued by their colleagues.
] Anxious people, on the other hand, are constantly worried about their job
security. They are easily distracted at work, don’t feel appreciated by their
coworkers, and have trouble finishing projects.
] Avoidant people also behave in predictable ways at work. They have high
job satisfaction and tend to advance regularly, probably because they
aren’t so concerned about the impact of their career on their personal
relationships. They also prefer to work alone and don’t really get along
with their colleagues.
136
] Research also reveals that attachment styles can have a lasting impact
on health, both directly and indirectly. First, anxious people experience
almost a constant state of physiological arousal. This produces ongoing
wear and tear on the body and has real consequences.
] Second, attachment styles also influence how people cope with negative
emotions. People with insecure models of attachment are more likely to
engage in unhealthy strategies of managing negative emotions, including
excessive alcohol use, risky sexual behavior, and disordered eating.
Changing Attachment Style

] In general, attachment style does seem to be pretty stable, but there’s plenty
of room for change. About 70% of people stick with the same attachment
style throughout their lives, but about 30% do change. And the good news
is that it’s easier to move from an insecure style to a secure one.
] What causes attachment style to shift? First, major life changes can play
a role. For example, experiencing the loss of an important relationship
may shift someone from secure to insecure, at least temporarily, whereas
the presence of a new and stable caregiver can help someone shift from
insecure to secure.
] Second, good relationships later in life can shift people to a secure

attachment style. Even though people with insecure models of attachment
often find it harder to form and maintain close relationships, it’s by no
means impossible. They are
also particularly likely to
benefit from having such
relationships, both romantic Reading
ones and friendships. Levine and Heller, Attached.
Saltman, Strange Situation.
137
Moral Development
and Situational
Ethics
Morality is often not as simple as

stepping up or staying silent. Instead,
there are often degrees of moral
behavior. This lesson examines
16
complexities in what research in
psychology says about how people
think about moral decisions and
whether they choose to act.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
138
Lesson 16 | Moral Development and Situational Ethics
Piaget’s Model and

Kohlberg’s Modification
] The first model of moral development was created by Swiss psychologist
Jean Piaget. He believed that a crucial task of childhood is learning right
from wrong and then having the ability to act in line with the right
decision.
] Piaget believed that children’s moral judgments were based on their stage
of cognitive development. In other words, moral reasoning changes as we
develop higher-level cognitive skills.
] The most famous model of moral development was created by Harvard

psychology professor Lawrence Kohlberg. Beginning in the late 1950s,
Kohlberg modified and extended Piaget’s model by proposing that moral
reasoning continues to develop throughout the lifespan, not just during
childhood.
] His theory was based on how participants responded to various moral

dilemmas and the reasoning they gave for their responses. Eventually,
Kohlberg developed his theory of moral reasoning, which divides people
into six different stages within three levels.
Kohlberg’s Six Stages

] The earliest level, which is used by children younger than nine, is the
preconventional level. This level focuses on morality only as it applies to
self-interest. In stage 1, children behave morally to avoid punishment, and
in stage 2, they do so to obtain rewards. Why do you behave morally?
139
] The next level is used during late childhood, adolescence, and even into
adulthood. It is the conventional level. This level focuses on morality based
in the goals of upholding societal laws and rules. People behave morally to
gain social approval (stage 3) or to maintain social order (stage 4).
] Kohlberg believed that 75% or 80% of people stay at the conventional

level. But he believed that some people attain a higher level of moral
reasoning and reach what he called the postconventional level. Morality at
this level is based on abstract principles and ethics.
] These include a recognition that even laws have their limits at stage 5. At
stage 6, people believe that universal ethical principles, such as justice,
equality, and respect for life, should guide behavior. People in this stage
explain their reasoning by saying phrases like, “Life is more important
than property.”
140
] Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning is still the best-known theory of

moral development. However, it has also received some pretty consistent
critiques. One concern is whether his theory is biased against women, or
against care-based moral reasoning. Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan
began as Kohlberg’s research assistant in the late 1960s but went on to
argue that Kohlberg’s focus on making moral decisions based on personal
principles, such as justice and fairness, ignored how women often focus
more on interpersonal relationships
] Another concern with Kohlberg’s model is whether his theory is biased

in favor of Western cultures, which tend to prioritize the rights of the
individual. After all, individual rights provide a foundation for people
to reach a postconventional stage of moral reasoning that looks beyond
considerations of social order.
] Yet in collectivistic cultures, the focus is instead on the group and social
relationships. This may help explain why Kohlberg believed people
from Western cultures are more likely to reach the highest level of moral
reasoning.
The Moral Foundations Theory

] A more recent model of moral reasoning was created in the 21st century
by social and cultural psychologists in part to explain how cultures show
both similarities and differences in moral reasoning. Including, but going
beyond, both Gilligan’s emphasis on care and Kohlberg’s emphasis on
justice, this theory, Moral Foundations Theory, proposes that there are five
basic moral foundations.
141
] Each culture then interprets and values these five foundations in distinct
ways. These foundations are:
1 Care: It is wrong to hurt people, and it is good to relieve people’s

suffering.
2 Fairness/reciprocity: Justice and fairness are good; people also have

certain rights that need to be upheld in social interactions.
3 In-group loyalty: People should be true to their group and be wary of

threats from the outside. Showing allegiance, loyalty, and patriotism are
good, and betrayal of one’s group is bad.
4 Authority/respect: People should respect social hierarchy; social order is

necessary for human life.
5 Purity/sanctity: The body and certain aspects of life are sacred.

Cleanliness and health, including the related constructs of chastity and
piety, are good. Pollution, contamination, and the related traits of lust
and greed are bad.
] According to this model, these five foundations are universal. They are the
basis of how people think about moral decisions in all cultures. But people
in different cultures and groups vary in how they prioritize these different
foundations.
] More recently, this theory been used to explain differences in moral

reasoning by people from different ends of the political spectrum within
a given culture. For instance, within the United States, liberals tend to
prioritize the first two dimensions: They might focus on preventing harm
and ensuring fairness. Conservatives, on the other hand, might tend to
prioritize loyalty and personal purity.
142
New Lines of Research

] During the 21st century, the field of moral psychology has also expanded
in two additional ways. The first of these originated with developmental
psychologists, who wanted to examine whether babies come into the world
with an innate sense of moral reasoning.
] These studies examine infants to try to understand whether moral

reasoning is learned through environmental experiences or is prewired
and innate. Such research has shown that even very young babies—who
are too young to be modeling what they’ve learned through media or their
environment—can recognize socially positive behavior, and they prefer
people who engage in such behavior.
] A second new and exciting line of research in moral psychology is rooted

in neuroscience. Research by Joshua Greene at Harvard University has
asked people to think about various ethical dilemmas while in an fMRI
machine, so that he can examine patterns of brain response while people
engage in moral reasoning.
143
] One commonly-used dilemma is the so-called trolley problem: A trolley is

running out of control down a track. In its path are five people who have
been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. You can flip a switch, which
will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is
a single person tied to that other track. Should you flip the switch?
] Greene gives people this dilemma, and he then watches how different parts
of the brain respond. Then, he gives a similar but modified dilemma to
consider.
] The trolley is again out of control, heading toward toward people tied to
the track. But now you’re on a footbridge over the trolley track, and next
to you, leaning perilously over the rail to see what happens, stands a very
large man. He is large enough, in fact, to stop the train. Is it moral to push
him over the rail to stop the train?
] The action that is required in these two cases is very different. One
involves flipping a switch to move the trolley from one track to another.
The other involves physically pushing a man to his death.
] The fMRI data reveal that people think about these two dilemmas in
very different ways. The first situation—in which you just have to pull a
lever—leads to more activity in brain regions associated with higher-level
cognitive functions, such as thinking, planning, and problem-solving.
The second situation—in which you have to push someone to his death—
activates brain regions that process emotions.
Situational Morality
] More recent research in moral psychology has also led to a realization
that it’s not so simple to categorize people into so-called good people and
bad people. Instead, most of us seem to use so-called situational morality.
Sometimes we behave morally, and other times we don’t.
144
] But whenever we don’t behave morally, we still want to be able to look in

the mirror and feel good about ourselves. Therefore, we go to some lengths
to justify any behavior that we recognize isn’t morally great. For instance,
people who cheat on their taxes say, “Well, the government doesn’t use the
money well.”
] The situation and the environment also matter a great deal. In many cases,
people may want to appear moral, but they are also quite willing not to
behave morally if no one will find out.
] Another factor is what those around us are doing. If we see other people
around us behaving poorly, it becomes far too tempting to match that
behavior and even come to see it as socially acceptable. People also justify
that choice by saying they are just doing what everyone else does.
] The slippery slope is another example. Getting away with minor acts
makes it easier to embark on bigger, more serious transgressions.
Nudges toward Good Behavior

] The good news is that understanding the factors that lead us to behave
poorly can also help us resist the pull toward bad behavior and instead do
the right thing. There are specific steps we can take to nudge ourselves
and those around us in a better direction. This lesson concludes with a few
suggestions.
] First, increase self-awareness. This is why many colleges and universities

have students write or sign an honor pledge at the beginning of an
exam verifying that they’ve never given nor received help. That reminds
the students that they are in a situation where independent work is
important and that they’ve personally pledged to behave accordingly. Any
environmental cue that increases self-awareness pushes people to make
better choices.
145
] A second way to increase self-awareness is to activate regret over past bad

choices. Here, researchers have asked people to focus on an instance of
regret without rewriting their memory of that event. They are then less
likely to engage in that type of regrettable behavior again.
] Third, even subtle cues can help remind people to engage in morally good
behavior. Researchers in one study focused on the coffee station in their
office, which ran on the honor system: People could help themselves to
coffee and tea and were asked to simply leave money in the tray. But since
no one monitored who contributed, or how much, the system encouraged
people to contribute less than they should.
] To test whether reminders of honesty would increase contributions, they

taped one of two posters right beside the coffee station for 10 weeks,
alternating which poster was seen each week. One of the posters showed a
pair of eyes. The other poster was a picture of flowers.
] During the weeks in which the poster with the eyes appeared,
contributions were nearly three times as high as in the weeks with the
flower poster. Other subtle cues are equally effective at pushing people to
make morally good choices.
] Research on situational ethics clearly shows that for most of us, our
adherence to moral thinking and behavior depends largely on the context
and environment. That’s why psychology now focuses much less on simply
distinguishing good people from bad people. Instead, the idea is that
creating simple environmental cues
can help all of us better find and
follow our own moral compass.
Reading
Bloom, Just Babies.
DeSteno and Valdesolo,
Out of Character.
146
Learning:
Conditioned,
Reinforced,
Observed
Psychologists regard experience-

based learning as particularly
important because of how it enables
all of us to adapt to our environment.
Psychologists use three distinct
theories to explain ways we learn
17
behavior. These are observations of
others’ behavior, classical conditioning,
and operant conditioning.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
147
Lesson 17 | Learning: Conditioned, Reinforced, Observed
Classical Conditioning
] Classical conditioning was the first to be identified for study within
psychology. A Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov was studying the
digestive system in dogs, and he was paying attention to how quickly dogs
started to produce saliva when they were given food.
] He noticed that after he’d worked with the same dog for a few days, the
dog would begin to produce saliva even before he had brought out the
food. Sometimes they would start producing saliva when they saw the food
bowl or when they heard his footsteps approaching the cage.
] Pavlov designed a study to test whether dogs were actually learning that
food was coming, even before they could see it. For several days in a row,
he would ring a small bell right before bringing out the food.
] Over time, he found that the dogs would consistently produce saliva
simply at the sound of the bell. This study demonstrated that the dogs
had learned that the bell was a sign that food was coming, and hence they
would start to produce saliva.
] Pavlov’s work on classical conditioning, which came to be known as

Pavlovian conditioning, was eventually shown to be relevant for how
virtually all organisms adapt to their environment, including humans.
] However, more recent research reveals some important limitations of

Pavlovian conditioning. First, this kind of learning can only occur if the
gap between the stimulus and the response is pretty close in time.
] A second limit is that we learn certain pairings much faster than others.
For instance, a person that becomes sick after eating a giant bowl of clam
chowder at a restaurant might develop a taste aversion, causing them to
148
avoid clam chowder for some time. But the same person likely won’t make
a similar pairing with other factors in the environment, such as the music
that was playing at the restaurant.
] Finally, Pavlovian conditioning ignores the role of cognition in the learning

process. Learning in humans is heavily influenced by more elaborate
thoughts about what’s going on.
Operant Conditioning
] Classical conditioning describes a type of learning that is involuntary or
unintentional. But other types of conditioning, or learning, can be more
intentional. Operant conditioning describes learning that occurs when
animals or people are reinforced—or punished—for engaging in particular
types of behavior.
149
] The word operant refers to the operations of adding or subtracting

something. It is based on the very simple principle that behavior responds
to the addition or removal of rewards and punishments.
] Operant conditioning was first developed by B. F. Skinner, one of the most

famous figures in psychology. He worked extensively with rats and pigeons
to demonstrate how they could be trained to perform unusual tasks
through the process of operant conditioning.
] For example, if a pigeon is rewarded only for pecking after seeing a picture
of a human face, it will learn to recognize human faces. More controversial
examples of operant conditioning with animals include circus acts with
trained lions or aquarium shows with trained seals, where the animals get a
treat after each trick.
] Those examples describe a type of operant conditioning known as positive

reinforcement. Keep in mind that the behavior that is reinforced might be
good or bad. For example, teens can get positive reinforcement from their
peers for engaging in risky behavior.
] Operant conditioning can also subtract something. In negative

reinforcement, we are still focused on increasing desirable behavior, but
instead of adding something new, the reward we give involves subtracting
something unpleasant. A parent might reward their teenager for good
grades by saying they no longer have to mow the lawn.
] Meanwhile, the goal of punishment is to decrease a behavior. Just like

reinforcement, punishment can be the result of adding or subtracting
something. An example of adding here would be a parent making their
teenager clean the garage as punishment for missing a curfew. This is
positive punishment.
150
] Negative punishment, on the other hand, involves taking away something

pleasant after an unwanted behavior occurs. The teenager’s parents may
take away their cell phone as a consequence of poor grades. Here, the
punishment is called negative punishment because something desirable is
subtracted.
] These four approaches are not equally effective: Reinforcing behavior tends
to be more effective because it rewards behavior that someone is already
doing. Punishment can be more problematic because it tells someone what
not to do yet not what they should do.
Shaping and Reinforcement

] More complex behaviors are learned through a conditioning process called
shaping. Shaping is used to reinforce small behaviors initially, which over
time can lead to more complex behaviors.
] For instance, young athletes are taught how to hit a baseball or softball
in stages. They start out hitting a ball from a stand and then a ball
thrown very slowly from a nearby pitcher. After those stages, the child
progresses to actually hitting a regulation-sized ball thrown faster and from
farther away.
] The most intensive examples of behavioral learning often begin with

reinforcement that is immediate, or continuous, in which a reward is given
every single time the behavior occurs, typically within about 30 seconds or
so. Consistent and immediate reinforcement is often needed when someone
is first trying to teach a behavior, especially for animals or small children.
But continuous reinforcement often isn’t very practical to implement over
long periods of time.
151
] In the real world, most behavior reinforcement is only partial, or

intermittent. Partial reinforcement can be very effective at maintaining a
behavior. For example, people who fish may spend hours fishing and only
rarely catch a fish. But they keep trying, because when that reward—a
fish—eventually comes, it feels great.
] Repeatedly engaging in an activity that sometimes results in a reward

describes a specific type of intermittent reinforcement known as a variable-
interval schedule. In other cases of intermittent reinforcement, a reward
is consistently given on a fixed-interval schedule. College students often
create their own fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement by giving
themselves a reward after studying for an hour.
] We can also give reinforcement based on the number of times a behavior

occurs. In a fixed-ratio schedule, a reward is given after a set number of
responses. Some jobs use this type of reinforcement to pay workers, such as
for sewing a set number of shirts.
] The most effective type of reinforcement schedule is a variable-ratio

schedule. In this case, a reward is given after some number of responses,
but the recipient idea what that number is.
] This means the recipient keeps doing the behavior again and again, hoping
that eventually the reward will come. Slot machines are a great example of
a variable-ratio schedule. Gamblers keep pulling the lever again and again,
hoping that the next pull will be the one in which they hit the jackpot.
] These four different reinforcement schedules vary in how effective they

are at creating and maintaining behavior. Fixed schedules generally lead to
faster learning because they are more predictable. A ratio schedule is better
for creating behavior.
152
] Variable schedules generally lead to stronger learning, so they are better for
maintaining behavior: Having unpredictable reinforcement keeps people
doing the behavior because they don’t know exactly when it will pay off.
This is precisely what contributes to various types of behavioral addictions,
such as gambling or gaming.
Drawbacks
] Learning by reinforcement does have some drawbacks. First, the idea of
operant conditioning is to teach someone to continue or avoid a behavior
by using reward and punishment. However, in some cases, rewards and
punishment don’t really motivate deeper and lasting behavior change.
153
] A ticket for speeding is supposed to deter speeding in the future. This

sometimes works, but it may cause certain drivers to only slow down when
they may be caught.
] Even worse, operant conditioning can undermine internal or intrinsic

motivation. This response is known as overjustification. Overjustification
occurs when people come to see their behavior as caused by extrinsic
reasons, meaning they are only doing the behavior to get the reward.
Observational Learning
] Observational learning describes how people learn by observing and
imitating other people’s behavior. For instance, one of the best strategies
a parent can use to encourage children to read is to model their own
enjoyment of reading. New employees learn office norms by watching
others in the workplace behave.
] The power of observational learning was first demonstrated in a study

by Al Bandura at Stanford University in 1961. He brought young
children into a lab room and had them watch an adult play with a giant
inflated doll.
] This doll, called a Bobo doll, was weighted with sand in its base so it
would pop up even when it was knocked down. The adult played with the
Bobo doll in a very distinct way: They sat on the doll, punched it in the
nose, hit him with a wooden mallet, and said aggressive phrases.
] The researcher then put the children in a room and observed their behavior
following a frustrating event created in the lab: The child was shown
some very attractive toys but then told that these toys were being saved for
another child.
154
] The child was then given some less desirable toys. As expected, children
who watched adults behave aggressively toward the Bobo doll replicated
much of that behavior, even using the exact same words and actions.
A follow-up study showed that children could just as easily learn and
demonstrate aggression when they watched a TV program showing a
similar attack on the Bobo doll.
] The effects of observational learning are broad and far-reaching. Children

who see domestic violence in their home are more likely to model this type
of abusive behavior in their own relationships later on. Children who hear
people they know make racist or sexist comments are likely to adopt those
same views themselves.
] However, observational learning can lead to good outcomes. Numerous

historical examples illustrate that people who model prosocial behavior can
inspire such behavior in others. For instance, one study found that one of
the strongest predictors of whether people chose to help refugees during
the 1994 genocidal massacres in Rwanda was having parents who had
helped others.
] More than half of the people who reported rescuing at least one refugee
also reported that their parents or grandparents had done so during
previous episodes of violence in their country. Models of moral courage
may therefore go a long way toward helping inspire future courageous
actions.
Reading
Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, Make It Stick.
Pryor, Don’t Shoot the Dog!.
155
Memory and
Forgetting
Memory is a constructive process,

meaning that we organize and shape
and even change information as we
store it and even when we retrieve it.
This lesson focuses on the process
of memory, meaning how learning
18
persists over time. It also takes a look
at how forgetting works.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
156
Lesson 18 | Memory and Forgetting
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

] Different models for memory describe the process in different ways.
According to the encoding, storage, and retrieval (ESR) model, developed
in the early 1960s, memory relies on a three-step process. First, we have to
encode information into memory. This process involves taking information
from the world and moving it into our memory storage.
] In some cases, encoding involves an effortful process, meaning the

memorizer has to pay close attention and make a conscious effort to
remember information. But in other cases, this process occurs without
any deliberate effort, which is called automatic processing. For example,
we often encode sensory information, meaning information tied into the
experience of one of our senses, automatically.
] Next, after this information is encoded, it can be stored. Some information

that we encode won’t ever make it to storage; for instance, a person won’t
encode every person they pass while driving to work. But in other cases,
memories are stored, meaning we retain these memories over some period
of time.
] Finally, we need to be able to retrieve information after it is stored. This is

why one of the best ways of improving memory is to actually create some
triggers—or retrieval cues—that help get information out of memory
when we need it.
Levels of Processing
] One extension of the ESR model states that the degree to which we process
information also influences memory. This is the levels of processing model,
developed in the early 1970s.
157
] Information that is processed on a more shallow or superficial level is

less likely to be encoded, stored, and retrieved. For example, a newspaper
article that someone at the gym skims on their phone while also walking
on a treadmill is processed at a pretty superficial level. That information
probably won’t be stored over time in memory.
] However, information that is processed at a deeper level leads to improved

encoding, storage, and retrieval. People typically process information
more deeply if they talk about it with other people. Information that is
personally relevant and meaningful to a person is also typically processed
at a deeper level.
Sensory, Short-Term, and

Long-Term Memory
] The third and most widely used model of memory divides encoding and
storage into three distinct stages: sensory, short-term, and long-term. Sensory
memory is the first stage and is essentially a quick snapshot of the world
around a person. We constantly take in a huge amount of information from
our environment: what we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch.
] We very briefly hold impressions of this sensory information even after the
actual stimulus is gone, although different types of sensory memory have
slightly different durations. For instance, iconic memory, a visual sensory
memory, lasts for less than a second. Echoic memory, an audible sense
memory, can last up to three or four seconds.
] The second stage is short-term memory, also known as working memory.

This stage is another temporary holding zone. Information is received and
either judged to be important enough to remember—thus move into the
next stage—or discarded.
158
] But short-term memory is limited both in terms of duration and capacity.

We can hold information in our consciousness for about 20 to 30 seconds,
and we can’t keep a lot of information active at the same time.
] The third stage is long-term memory. This stage is for storing things that
we don’t need to recall right in the present. It includes memories for facts,
feelings, thoughts, skills, and experiences.
] These memories, unlike those in short-term memory, can last for long
periods of time, even years. Given the billions of neurons in a human
brain, interconnected with trillions of synapses, our capacity for long-term
memory is essentially limitless.
Types and Subtypes of

Long-Term Memory
] Long-term memory has several distinct types and subtypes. Declarative,
or explicit, memory describes knowledge that can be consciously retrieved
and declared. For instance, a person may easily retrieve and declare their
old street address.
] This type of memory is further divided into two distinct parts. All the
personal events and episodes from one’s own life are called episodic
memory. But declarative memory also includes things a person
hasn’t directly experienced but has absorbed—either deliberately or
unintentionally—from simply being in the world.
] Long-term memory also includes implicit memory, meaning memory that

cannot be brought to mind explicitly but can be expressed in behavior.
A subtype of implicit memory is procedural memory, which refers to
procedures or skills that we learn from engaging in particular activities,
like riding a bike or tying shoes.
159
How and What We Forget

] Just as important as explaining what and how we remember is
understanding the opposite: how and what we forget. According to the
decay theory, memories simply fade over time.
] Looking beyond simple decay, other theories suggest forgetting may

happen because some types of memories directly interfere with others.
According to interference theory, similar memories compete with one
another and can cause us to forget some memories in favor of remembering
others.
] Another common problem in memory is that the very act of trying

to remember something can actually change our memory. The term
misremembering refers to remembering something that actually didn’t
happen.
] The type of vivid and enduring memory for how one learned about
a surprising, shocking event, such as a terrorist attack, is known as a
flashbulb memory. However, many of the flashbulb memories we hold are
actually wrong, meaning we remember things about that day that in reality
didn’t happen.
] Research shows that when we try to bring a memory to mind, we often

alter it in some way. Flashbulb memories are even more susceptible to
change than other types of memory precisely because we tend to replay
them over and over in our minds and talk about them in conversations
with other people.
] Each time we bring them up—either alone or with others—our memory

for these events is slightly altered. Over time, we start to remember a
composite of things that we didn’t actually experience at the time.
160
] Another similar type of misremembering is called source amnesia. In this

case, we actually do remember the information, but we forget where it
came from. Source amnesia can have big consequences in the case of health
misinformation or political misinformation.
] Misremembering can be more intentional and even deliberate. The term

motivated forgetting describes when a person forgets something they really
don’t want to remember.
MOTIVATED FORGETTING IN ACTION
Adults who didn’t do so well on

the SATs in high school often
forget their scores. However,
those who did well can
often recall their
precise score.
161
Strengthening Memory
] We have the ability to take relatively straightforward steps to strengthen
and improve our memory. These techniques all rely on trying to encode
information more strongly into the brain. The idea is to move things from
short-term into long-term memory.
] For instance, we can organize information into chunks—meaning

familiar, manageable units—to make it easier to remember. The chunking
technique works for virtually any type of information.
] Another method is to create retrieval cues. Mnemonic devices such as

acronyms are one type of retrieval cue. For example, a person might
remember the names of all of the Great Lakes by using the acronym
HOMES (standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior).
] Organization also helps. It’s far easier to remember information when we

have some type of an overarching structure. Many people find it easier to
remember information when it’s structured in an outline form with a few
broad concepts, which each subdivide into other points.
] Repeating something over and over again also helps that information stick
in our minds. The method of repetition, or overlearning, helps us move
information from short-term into long-term memory.
] Finally, we are better at remembering things when we focus on them and

closely pay attention. This type of focus lets us actually encode and store
what we are learning. But we often fail to do this because we are so busy
multitasking.
Reading
Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein.
Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory.
162
Problem-Solving
and Errors of
Thinking
Psychologists describe thinking as

forming concepts to organize our
world, solve problems, and make
judgments and decisions. These
concepts are typically based on
sensory images, understood in terms
of prototype examples, and organized
into hierarchies of narrower subtypes
and broader supertypes. In some
19
cases, our thinking strategies can pay
off, but we can also make errors in
thinking that lead us astray.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
163
Lesson 19 | Problem-Solving and Errors of Thinking
Strategies for Solving Problems

] Cognitive psychology has described four different strategies for solving
problems. One approach is to use an algorithm, meaning a logical rule or
procedure that guarantees solving a type of problem. An example of it at
work would be using an algorithm to solve long division problems.
] An algorithm will always work to produce a correct answer. But it also has
a downside: Algorithms are time-consuming and may be very inefficient.
] Instead of using an algorithm, we often use shortcuts in our thinking. For

instance, trial and error can be more efficient than an algorithm, but it’s
not guaranteed.
] Another problem-solving strategy that is also designed to be faster than an

algorithm is a heuristic. Heuristics are essentially educated guesses based on
general knowledge of the world, which can help us solve problems faster.
] But heuristics can also lead us astray. For instance, take this question:
Which city is farther west—Reno, Nevada, or Los Angeles, California?
Most people would say Los Angeles.
] This is an educated guess, which relies on what we know: Los Angeles is

in California, and touches water on the West Coast, whereas Reno is in
Nevada, which is to the east of California. But this guess is incorrect. Reno
is actually farther west than Los Angeles.
] The final problem-solving approach that we can use is insight, meaning

a sudden realization of the solution to a problem. When a person has an
insight, they feel like the answer just came to them.
] Because insights arrive in a way that is largely or even entirely unconscious,

it can sometimes be helpful to set a problem aside. After an incubation
period, the solution may emerge without additional conscious thought.
164
Intuition, Confirmation Bias,

Fixation, and Functional Fixedness
] The aforementioned types of problem-solving strategies can all be useful
in daily life. However, daily life is filled with mistakes we make in solving
problems.
] One error is our tendency to rely on intuition—a gut feeling or hunch—to

make a decision about something or someone. Intuition is similar to the
problem-solving strategy of insight in that both involve making a very fast
judgment. But insight involves finding a solution to a problem.
] By contrast, intuition is actually much simpler and easier to get wrong since
it is just a yes-versus-no judgment. In a high-profile example of the hazards
of relying on intuition, a manager at Decca Records had the opportunity
to sign an obscure band from Liverpool, England, on New Year’s Day in
1962. But he didn’t offer them a contract, based on his belief that “Guitar
groups are on their way out,” as he told the Beatles’ band manager.
] A closely related error we make in problem-solving involves not just relying

on a gut feeling or hunch, but actively searching only for information
that confirms our initial expectations. This error, known as confirmation
bias, leads us to search for information that will confirm that we are right,
instead of trying to seek evidence that might refute it.
] The problem with confirmation bias is that people may look for
information to support their views but ignore all the information that
doesn’t. Confirmation bias helps explain why some voters who support
a particular political candidate continue to do so, no matter what. They
ignore data about problems with that candidate and instead focus on data
that support their initial decision to vote for that person.
165
] Another common error many of us tend to make is getting locked into our
initial guess and then being unable to see a problem in a new way. This
tendency, known as fixation, is why we keep looking for our missing keys
in the exact same place.
] We might have found them in that place before, so we keep returning to it,
even when we’ve already checked and realize they are not in fact there this
time. Fixation occurs because once we’ve used a given strategy in the past,
we often get fixated on this same solution and can’t think of a problem in
a new way.
] A closely related error, known as functional fixedness, describes our

tendency to perceive the functions of objects as fixed and unchanging. For
example, a person may be in desperate need of a screwdriver but can’t find
one, feeling stuck. But if they stopped thinking about the particular object
and instead thought of another object to use for the same purpose, like a
coin or knife, they might well be able to find a good substitute.
Availability Bias,
Representativeness, Framing,
and the Left-Digit Bias
] The availability bias is the tendency to estimate the likelihood of an
event based on the ease with which instances of it come readily to mind.
People often mistakenly rely on vivid or salient information to estimate
how likely something is to occur instead of using the
actual numerical likelihood. For instance, when
someone dies of a shark attack, it’s often
well covered in the media, and that
makes it seem like a more prevalent
cause of death than it actually is.
166
] A related bias that can lead us to think something is more likely than it
actually is involves stereotypes. Known as representativeness, this bias
describes a tendency to assume that someone is a member of a certain
group if he or she fits our stereotype—or representation—of a group
member, even if group membership is statistically unlikely.
] In some cases, simply the wording used can influence our evaluation.
Framing can have a substantial impact on how we think about these
choices. For instance, people see a medical procedure with a 10% failure
rate as riskier than one with a 90% success rate.
] Another shortcut that’s closely related to framing is the left-digit bias,

meaning the tendency to focus on the left-most digit of a number and to
pay less attention to the other digits. For instance, a car that costs $14,999
is virtually the same price as one that costs $15,000, but somehow a car
with a price starting with 14 seems to cost less than one with a price
starting with 15.
Overconfidence, Groupthink,
and Loss Aversion
] An additional error is our tendency to be overconfident in our judgments
about virtually everything. The error of overconfidence can lead to serious,
even deadly consequences. This is especially true when we are making
decisions or attempting to solve problems as part of a group.
] The term groupthink describes a group decision-making style that occurs

when group members prioritize reaching unanimous agreement over
making the best decision. This tendency is especially likely to occur
when group members are all very similar to one another, are isolated from
divergent viewpoints, and have a strong leader who discourages deviant
opinions.
167
] This tendency toward groupthink is also more likely when the decision
is highly stressful and must be made quickly. Groupthink includes a
tendency for groups to be overconfident in their approach to making
decisions for at least three distinct reasons:
Y First, a tendency to overestimate invulnerability and morality.
Y Second, being closeminded to the opinions of those outside the group.
Y Third, a pressure toward unanimity among group members.
] A vivid example of bad decision-making resulting from groupthink was

revealed in 2012. The Penn State University community was stunned
by a scathing report led and released by former FBI director Louis Freeh
describing the cover-up of the child-sexual abuse scandal by numerous
high-level administrators.
] Members of the Penn State administration, including the university

president, athletic director, and head football coach, became aware of
very serious and criminal accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior
committed by then–assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. However, the
university created a very insular group to discuss how to respond.
] They failed to consult with people outside the administrator group,

whether the campus police, the counseling center, or organizations that
support victims of childhood sexual abuse. As the administrator emails
later revealed, they worried far more about the potential damage to
themselves and the institution, showing a bias called loss aversion.
] They therefore decided not to report the allegations to the police—despite

the risk of that choice for future victims. In fact, they even convinced
themselves that their choice to cover up these allegations was better for the
children who had been victimized.
168
] But groupthink happens in groups of all kinds, including scientific

organizations. For instance, in 1986, the leaders at NASA decided to go
ahead with the launch of the space shuttle Challenger despite concerns
raised about the potential for a catastrophic failure. This decision led to the
deaths of all seven people on board just 73 seconds after liftoff.
CHALLENGER
] It can also appear in political leaders. As President John F. Kennedy once

reflected, after his reliance on groupthink led to the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion, “Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no
country can succeed and no republic can survive.”
] Groupthink is also seen in religious communities. As outlined in the

2018 grand jury report of sexual abuse within the Catholic clergy in
Pennsylvania, despite horrible sexual offenses against boys and girls,
“church leaders … preferred to protect the abusers and their institution
above all.”
169
Avoiding Errors
] After those difficult examples, it’s important to remember that such errors
are not inevitable. In fact, simply knowing about the very natural human
tendency to make these errors can help us overcome them. Once we are
aware of our tendency to take shortcuts, there are specific steps we can take
to overcome these errors, reduce the chance of jumping too quickly to a
wrong conclusion, and make better decisions.
� Perhaps the leading factor that leads to errors is a desire to

reach a fast decision. That’s why people worry more about
plane crashes than they should but underestimate the
bigger risk involved in texting while driving.
] It’s worth making sure the group actively seeks out and listens to the views
and opinions of people outside the group. It’s also important to encourage
people within the group with dissenting views to speak up. Perhaps most
importantly, it is critical to choose a leader that fosters active debate and
encourages criticism.
] Thinking can be fast or slow, to use a distinction popularized by Daniel

Kahneman. Fast thinking is instinctive and emotional, and it involves
minimal effort. It is efficient but can
also lead to biases and errors. However,
we can overcome these problems
Reading
by also using slow thinking, a more Kahneman, Thinking,
deliberate and effortful approach. Fast and Slow.
Schwartz, The
Paradox of Choice.
170
Psychology of
Eyewitnesses
and Confessions
What a confession means in practice
may be something quite different from
what has been portrayed in many
fictional accounts. To understand
where confessions and other types
of evidence gathering can go wrong,
we must look at the fragility of
memory and the sources of bias in our
thinking. These factors can lead us to
remember things that didn’t happen
20
and make errors in our thinking. In
turn, those mistakes can have real and
substantial consequences for the legal
system.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
171
Lesson 20 | Psychology of Eyewitnesses and Confessions
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CHARGES
One survey of prosecutors across the United States

published in 1989 found that an estimated 77,000 people
each year had been charged with committing a crime based
solely on reports of an eyewitness.
Eyewitnesses
] One of the most influential pieces of information police officers can have
in trying to solve a crime has traditionally been an eyewitness—a person
who has firsthand information about the crime being committed. This
person may be a bystander or the victim of the crime.
] Eyewitnesses who can confidently identify the suspect and confirm that
they saw them commit a crime are very convincing, and jurors tend to
believe them. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses can also be wrong.
] The prevalence of eyewitness errors only became widely known in the

1980s, as DNA evidence started to become widely used in criminal
investigations. This technology also allowed for people who had been
wrongly convicted of committing a crime to be exonerated.
] According to the Innocence Project, which works to prevent injustice in

the legal system, as of July 2020, 367 convictions have been overturned due
to DNA evidence. Of these, 69% had been convicted through eyewitness
misidentification and had served an average of 14 years in prison before
exoneration. This makes eyewitness misidentification the leading cause of
wrongful convictions.
172
] As for why eyewitnesses can be inaccurate, memory errors can occur

during encoding of a memory, storage of a memory, or retrieval of a
memory. All of these errors occur at an unconscious level.
] Witnesses truly believe their memories are accurate, even when they aren’t.
Confident witnesses are especially convincing, even though there’s often
no correlation between confidence and accuracy.
Encoding Errors
] In many cases when an eyewitness observes a crime occurring, the
conditions for accurately encoding what is happening are just not present.
Crimes may occur at night or in dim light, meaning it’s literally hard to see
what’s going on. Crimes often occur quickly, so there isn’t much time to
form perceptions.
] The person committing the crime may have disguised their appearance in
some way. Crimes also occur unexpectedly, meaning we aren’t primed to
pay close attention in advance.
] Watching a crime being committed often

creates arousal and anxiety, which can
further disrupt our ability to
pay close attention to various
details. In particular, the
weapon-focus effect describes
people’s natural tendency to
direct their attention towards a
weapon, if one is present—not the
person wielding it. This means the
witness is not paying attention to
identifying features.
173
] Another factor that leads to eyewitness errors is the cross-race identification

bias, meaning people’s relative difficulty in identifying a person who is not
of their race. Witnesses are 50% more likely to misidentify a stranger of a
different race than a stranger of their own race.
] People who are in the majority population group are more likely to
misidentify people than those in minority population groups. In cases
of convictions made based on false identifications that were overturned
following DNA evidence, 42% involved cross-race errors, typically with a
white person misidentifying a Black person.
Storage Errors
] Even if encoding goes well, memories can change while they are in storage,
impairing the accuracy of eyewitnesses. One factor is that memories
naturally tend to decline in time, and it may be months or even years
between someone witnessing a crime and the trial.
] Additionally, our memories actually change while they are in storage. We

might initially have encoded and stored accurate information, but then
we are exposed to other information—perhaps something we read in a
newspaper or hear from a friend—that shifts the memory to be less accurate.
] Even the words that police officers use when questioning an eyewitness can
shape their memory of the event. In one study, participants were shown a
video of two cars crashing, and were then asked how fast the two cars were
going before the crash.
] The researcher varied which verb they used to describe the crash, framing
the cars as having contacted, hit, or smashed into one another. When the
word contacted was used, the estimate was 30 miles per hour. When the
word hit was used, the estimate was 34 miles per hour. And when the word
smashed was used, the estimate was 41 miles per hour.
174
Retrieval Errors
] Problems with eyewitness identification can also occur at the third stage of
memory, the retrieval process. Various environmental cues can lead us to
recall memories inaccurately.
] One factor is the format of the lineup. Typically, eyewitnesses are either
shown a set of photos or see a group of potential suspects in a live lineup,
usually behind a wall of one-way glass. They are then asked to choose
whether they recognize the person who committed the crime, and if so, to
pick out that person.
] But eyewitnesses often assume that the person must be present in the photos
or lineup, or the police wouldn’t bother asking them to identify the person.
They may therefore choose the person who best matches their memory
of the suspect, which increases the likelihood that a witness will identify
an innocent person who happens to bear a close resemblance to the real
perpetrator.
175
] Even if an eyewitness isn’t really confident about their selection initially,

they can become more so over time. When people are given positive
feedback about their identification, they become more confident in their
judgment. For example, witness confidence increases after hearing that
another person also identified that suspect.
False Confessions
] False confessions are the other major factor causing wrongful convictions.
Police officers are trained to use specific psychological tactics to get
someone to confess to a crime. After all, a confession is even more
convincing to a jury than an eyewitness identification.
] Police tactics can include exaggerating the amount of evidence they have.
In other cases, they minimize the crime and offer excuses for it as a way of
befriending the suspect and leading them to expect confessing will be no
big deal. Estimates are that police detectives use an average of five or six
tactics on each suspect.
] Some of these misleading and subtly coercive techniques were first

developed as an alternative to the previous strategy of using beatings to
elicit information. A former police polygraph expert, John Reid, codified
some of these tactics in the 1950s and later created a training company
under his own name. Such tactics are therefore sometimes referred to as
the Reid technique.
] These tactics are so effective at gaining confessions that they can, at least
in some cases, lead people to confess to crimes they didn’t actually commit.
This occurred with the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino
teenagers falsely accused and imprisoned for beating and raping a woman.
They were later exonerated.
176
] For years, false confessions were seen as highly unlikely. But after the
introduction of DNA testing became widely used, the prevalence of false
confessions became abundantly clear: Of the first 62 prisoners exonerated
by DNA evidence, 15 had confessed to a crime they didn’t actually
commit. Fully 28% of the 367 exonerations up to the year 2020 involved
false confessions.
] Young people are particularly likely to confess, especially when stressed

or tired. After the teenagers in the Central Park case were arrested, the
police deprived them of food, drink, and sleep for hours. Several reported
confessing simply as a way to have the interrogation end.
] Additionally, some people may come to truly feel they have committed a
criminal act, even when that isn’t what happened. This process is called
internalization, and it played a role in the confession of Martin Tankleff,
who was wrongly convicted for the murder of his parents.
Impacts of False Confessions

] But regardless of what factors lead someone to wrongly confess, the mere
presence of a confession influences the direction of the investigation in
multiple ways. Witnesses change their stories, police stop investigating
other leads, and alibis are recanted.
] Confessions can even change how DNA evidence is interpreted.

Researchers in one study found that when jurors are given a choice
between relying on a confession and DNA evidence, they weigh DNA
evidence more heavily. But if the prosecutor can provide some theory
about why the DNA evidence isn’t in line with the confession, juries then
overwhelmingly side with the confession.
177
] A confession, regardless of how it is obtained, practically guarantees a

guilty verdict. Even when people recognize that a confession was given
under duress, they still tend to believe the person is guilty.
Efforts at Reform
] Fortunately, a growing awareness of wrongful convictions has led to
important reforms. Much of this work has been led by Saul Kassin, a
psychology professor. He has served as an expert witness in many high-
profile cases around the world to help judges and jurors understand how
psychological factors can lead to wrongful convictions.
178
] Kassin and his colleagues point to a number of reforms that can help.
These include changing interrogation procedures, such as prohibiting lying
by the police; recording all interrogations from start to finish; and limiting
interrogation time.
] Other changes involve procedures used when conducting a lineup. One

technique is to put people in the lineup who resemble the witness’s
description of the perpetrator. Another is to tell witnesses that the
perpetrator may or may not be included in the lineup. A third is to make
sure that even the person administering the lineup does not know who the
actual suspect is.
] Still other recommendations focus on how police officers should interview

and interact with eyewitnesses to make sure witnesses are not pressured,
encouraged, or persuaded to give false statements. For example, a
fascinating study published in 2018 suggests a simple new technique can
help eyewitnesses remember more about what they’ve seen.
] This system, known as category cluster recall (CCR), prompts eyewitnesses

to remember what they have seen in three distinct steps. First, they recall
what the people involved in the crime looked like, then what those people
did, and finally, what the environment in which the crime took place
looked like.
] This approach is very different than the standard police procedure. Instead
of people just recalling details of the crime in whatever order they want, a
deliberate focus on one category of information at a time helped witnesses
recall more specific details with greater accuracy.
Reading
Burns, The Central Park Five.
Shaw, The Memory Illusion.
179
Intelligence and
Creativity
Early in the 20th century, British
psychologist Charles Spearman
was the first to observe that high
scores on different types of tests of
mental abilities—reasoning, problem-
solving, memory, and so on—all
correlated with one another. This led
him to propose that a single factor,
which he called general intelligence,
underlies performance on all types of
cognitive abilities. This lesson looks at
subsequent ideas, different measures
21
of intelligence, and the link between
intelligence and creativity.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
180
Lesson 21 | Intelligence and Creativity
Further Developments
] Spearman described general intelligence as a single dimension that helps
us acquire, remember, and use knowledge to solve problems, learn from
experience, and adapt to new situations. He referred to general intelligence
with the letter g. However, a number of other researchers later on suggested
that intelligence has more than one factor.
] Intelligence consists of two distinct types of skills and abilities. Teenagers

and young adults are especially strong in fluid intelligence, meaning
the ability to basically use our minds to rapidly think and reason on an
abstract level. Conversely, older adults tend to be stronger in crystallized
intelligence, meaning the wealth of knowledge and skills one acquires
through life experiences, reading, education, and so on.
] Robert Sternberg, a longtime professor of psychology at Yale University,

created a broader model that he described as successful intelligence. First,
there’s analytical intelligence, meaning how a person evaluates information
and solves well-defined problems. This is what is often assessed in
standardized tests.
] There’s also creative intelligence, meaning how well a person can react to
novel situations and come up with new ideas. Finally, there is practical
intelligence, referring to how well a person can solve everyday tasks and
adapt to changing environments.
] Similar to Sternberg, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner thought

that intelligence is more than a single dimension. His theory of multiple
intelligences says that each of us have different profiles of intelligence
and are stronger in some areas than in others. In short, intelligence is
multifaceted.
181
] According to Gardner’s original version of this theory, there are seven

distinct types of intelligences, as follows.
Y Musical: recognizing and remembering sounds and rhythms.
Y Bodily/kinesthetic: having good physical coordination and motor

control.
Y Visual-spatial: visualizing information and reading charts and graphs.
Y Linguistic/verbal: writing stories, reading, and memorizing.
Y Logical/mathematical: reasoning and analyzing problems.
Y Intrapersonal: understanding their own feelings and motivations.
Y Interpersonal: understanding and relating to people.
182
] He later added two additional types of intelligence. Naturalistic

intelligence involves being in tune with nature and the environment, and
existential intelligence involves the ability to ask fundamental questions
about human existence.
] Gardner’s theory has been met with some criticism due to questions about
whether these different dimensions are really natural types of intelligence.
They can look more like skills and talents, which depend much more on
the specific training a person has had or not had.
Testing Intelligence
] Gardner and Sternberg were reacting against the tradition of measuring
general intelligence first pioneered by Alfred Binet early in the 20th
century. He created a measure of mental age, meaning the age at which a
child was able to perform various tasks. For instance, a gifted five-year-old
might have a mental age of seven.
] In the United States, Lewis Terman, a professor at Stanford University

in the early to mid-1900s, developed his own test to measure children’s
intelligence. His test, which was loosely modeled on the test developed
by Binet, is known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. This test
examines different types of cognitive ability, including general knowledge,
visual-spatial processing, quantitative reasoning, and memory.
] The most widely used IQ test today is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale. The Wechsler test calculates an overall intelligence score, but it’s
based on separate sub-scores assessing four components of intelligence:
verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and
processing speed, which are assessed with a total of 10 tests. This type of
test therefore provides more nuanced information about a person’s abilities
in different domains.
183
] IQ tests are still widely administered, and they remain heavily focused on
cognitive skills. Overall, such tests are useful ways of classifying people
from a given culture and background in terms of some particular abilities.
However, IQ tests are not perfect measures or predictors of anything,
which is why these tests should never be used in isolation but rather in
combination with other information.
] There’s also substantial concern that IQ tests may be biased. Tests do make
assumptions: for example, a test item involving cups and saucers could be
biased toward middle- or upper-class children.
Other Ways to Measure

Intelligence
] An important consideration is whether intelligence is actually the same
across cultures, especially if we consider being able to function and thrive
in one’s environment as a marker of intelligence. For example, in the South
Pacific, intelligence might be the ability to excel at fishing and navigating.
For someone growing up in an urban city, it might mean the ability to use
“street smarts” to ensure a family’s safety and well-being.
] According to this culturally based view of intelligence, it’s virtually

impossible to create a culturally free test of intelligence. There has been
strong interest in figuring out more objective ways to assess intelligence.
] One old idea has been to measure brain size. Most research historically has
pointed to no association between brain size and intelligence. But a 2019
study testing more than 13,000 people found a slight positive association:
On average, people with larger brains do tend to perform slightly better on
intelligence tests than people with smaller brains.
184
] As the study authors themselves note, their finding isn’t as impressive as

one might suppose. Brain size accounted for only about 2% of the overall
intelligence test performance.
] A somewhat more direct way to assess

intelligence is to examine how brains
function. For example, PET scans
done while people perform cognitive
tasks reveal that the brains of people
with high intelligence—as assessed
by traditional IQ tests—are less active,
meaning they use less glucose energy, than the
brains of those with low IQ.
] This is equally true when comparing those who are experts

versus novices at a particular task. One reason for the lower level of
measured brain effort may be that intelligent people also seem to have
greater speed for retrieving information from memory and for performing
recognition tasks.
Nature versus Nurture

] Another question of great interest is the extent to which intelligence is
influenced by nature versus nurture. The short answer is that both play a
role. First, considerable evidence suggests that people who share the same
genes do share comparable mental abilities.
] However, environment also has a major effect on intelligence in really

interesting and important ways. For example, parents can model behaviors
that foster intelligence in their children, such as subscribing to newspapers
or reading books for pleasure.
185
] Parents who simply care about their children also boost intelligence.
One study compared IQs of children in Romania who were placed in an
institutional setting—an orphanage—versus those placed within a foster
care setting with a family, where they received much more attention.
Simply receiving more individual attention, and probably more love and
care, led to increases in IQ.
Group Differences
] A tricky but important topic within intelligence research is whether there
are group differences in intelligence. On the one hand, there are pretty
consistent group differences in scores on intelligence tests, and group
differences on intelligence tests are found in many cultures.
] Similarly, there are many sex-based differences in achievement: In the

United States, girls are better at reading and writing and talk sooner. In
high schools, underachieving boys outnumber girls two to one. However,
boys are higher in math problem-solving ability and score an average of 45
out of 800 points higher on the SAT math test (translating to about four
more correct answers).
] One explanation is that genetic, and potentially evolutionary, factors led

to these differences. For example, perhaps men tend to have greater spatial
ability because our ancestors who were men needed to be able to track prey
and navigate their way home. Thus, men evolved to be better at spatial skills.
] On the other hand, women’s survival was enhanced by greater memory,

such as for the location of edible plants. In fact, girls have greater memories
of pictures and stories.
186
] However, this clearly isn’t the whole story. Environmental factors have
a tremendously strong influence on group differences in intelligence.
For example, cross-cultural studies demonstrate that Asian students
outperform American students on math tests.
] Does this mean people who are Asian are genetically smarter? Probably
not: Asian students attend school about 30% more days each year and
also spend a greater percentage of their time in and out of school studying
math. In sum, they spend many more hours each year learning and
practicing math, which probably pays off.
] Another factor that clearly seems to contribute to group differences on

intelligence tests is social perceptions about the group, known as stereotype
threat. The term stereotype threat refers to how one’s awareness of a negative
stereotype about members of a person’s group leads members of that group
to experience anxiety, which in turn impairs performance.
] Research has revealed that stereotypes about group performance on tests

can have positive as well as negative effects. For example, Asian American
women who are asked to think about their Asian identity before taking a
math test do even better on the test, whereas those who are asked to think
about their female identity do worse.
Creativity
] This lesson concludes with a look at creativity. We often assume that
people who are highly creative must also be highly intelligent. However,
people who are especially creative—Albert Einstein, for instance—don’t
just accumulate knowledge. They also think outside of the box and create
new concepts and ideas.
187
] According to the threshold hypothesis developed in the 1960s, high

creativity requires at least above-average intelligence. Above-average
intelligence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for high creativity.
] In fact, creativity comes from a set of resources, including internal factors

within ourselves and external factors from the environment we’re in. First,
there’s expertise, meaning a well-developed base of knowledge.
] Second, there’s imaginative thinking skills, which let people see things in
new ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections. Creative people
also share distinct personality traits. They are able to tolerate ambiguity,
seek out new experiences, and persist even in the face of obstacles.
] Creative people are also driven by internal motivation—that is, by

interest, enjoyment, and satisfaction, not just external rewards and
pressures. Another factor linked with creativity is experience in particular
environments that spark, support, and refine particular ideas. Most
prominent scientists, inventors, and artists are mentored, supported, and
challenged by relationships with colleagues.
] Finally, research on life cycle effects and creativity suggests that creativity
peaks at different points for different people and for different fields of
endeavor. A 2019 paper found evidence for two distinct life cycles of
creativity, at least for creativity as assessed by winning a Nobel Prize in
economics.
] The researchers first classified 31 Nobel Prize winners in terms of the

type of work they produced: as more conceptual, meaning using a more
mathematical approach, or more experimental, meaning relying on specific
places, time periods, or industries in their work.
188
] They then determined the age at which these economists had produced
their most important work, as assessed by how often that piece was
mentioned as influential by other economists. Their results revealed
evidence for two distinct types of peaks for economists with different
approaches.
] Conceptual economists tended to peak relatively early in their careers.

Their most influential paper was typically published when they were in
their mid- to late 20s. But experimental economists showed a very different
pattern, with a peak in their mid-50s.
] Conceptual thinkers are less immersed in whatever the accepted theories

within a field are and more comfortable with proposing new approaches.
But experimental economists need time to design, analyze, and interpret
information, which requires more trial and error.
] In other words, perhaps there is one peak for projects requiring fluid
intelligence, and a second peak for those relying on crystalized intelligence.
Other work by these same researchers reveals similar differences in types
and peaks of creativity for other domains, including for artists, writers, and
scientists.
Reading
Dweck, Mindset.
Gardner, Frames of Mind.
189
Emotional
Intelligence
and Success
This lesson looks at what

psychologists call emotional
intelligence, particularly how it leads
to success. Emotional intelligence
consists of two basic skills. It’s
an awareness that emotions can
drive our behavior and impact us
in both positive and negative ways.
It’s also coupled with an ability to
22
manage emotions—our own and
other people’s—which is particularly
important when under pressure.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
190
Lesson 22 | Emotional Intelligence and Success
Forming the Idea of

Emotional Intelligence
] Although the term emotional intelligence first appeared in a couple
of psychology papers in the 1960s, the distinct concept of emotional
intelligence as a cohesive measure was first created by two psychologists at
Yale University in a paper published in 1990. Moreover, various elements
of emotional intelligence had long been studied separately, using concepts
such as low neuroticism and agreeableness.
] The idea of aggregating various emotional and social factors predicting

success under a single concept truly took off in 1995 when a science writer,
Daniel Goleman, published a book titled Emotional Intelligence: Why
It Can Matter More than IQ. This book was published worldwide in 40
languages, and it became a best seller in many countries.
] In one of the most powerful demonstrations of the benefits of emotional

intelligence researchers studied employees at 188 companies to determine
the characteristics of who was most successful. Goleman summarized the
key finding by saying that emotional intelligence was quite important, and
he eventually wrote that “CEOs are hired for their intellect and business
expertise—and fired for a lack of emotional intelligence.”
Components of Emotional
Intelligence
] Emotional intelligence consists of several distinct components. In the
version popularized by Goleman and often referred to as EI or EQ, there
are five components. First, there’s self-awareness, meaning an ability to
recognize and understand one’s own emotions.
191
] Next, there’s self-regulation, meaning an ability to understand and regulate

emotions. People who are high in emotional intelligence are also good at
managing their emotions, even under conditions of high stress.
] The third component of emotional intelligence is intrinsic motivation.

People who are internally motivated to pursue their goals work on things
they find enjoyable, interesting, and challenging. They aren’t driven
primarily by external factors. A strong internal drive tends to lead to better
outcomes.
] A fourth component is empathy, meaning the ability to easily imagine

the world from someone else’s perspective. This ability helps individuals
understand and manage the emotions of people around them. It also helps
them work well with other people, build and maintain relationships, and
resolve conflicts in constructive ways.
] The final component of emotional intelligence is social skills. People who

are high in emotional intelligence listen and communicate effectively.
They also take responsibility when things don’t go well and give credit to
those around them when things go well.
in the Workplace
] Virtually all jobs involve working with other people in some capacity.
Having an ability to get along with people and understand their point of
view is clearly an asset. People who are emotionally intelligent are good
at intuiting other people’s emotions based on subtle cues, such as facial
expressions, body posture, and tone of voice.
192
] They’re also better at working with people and getting other people to
want to work with them. That helps explain why they get more done
and tend to earn higher salaries. Emotionally intelligent people are also
especially effective at challenging the status quo and helping make change
happen in a positive and productive way.
Academics and Emotional

Intelligence
] One of the most frequently researched topics is the link between emotional
intelligence and academic achievement. In 2020, a comprehensive review
took place of the strongest predictors of school performance, as measured
by grades as well as standardized test scores. It found that emotional
intelligence, along with high intelligence and a conscientious personality,
were the three factors most strongly linked with academic success.
193
] What explains this link between emotional intelligence and school

success? Emotional intelligence is multifaceted, so the link is probably
also multifaceted. Students who are better at managing negative emotions
like anxiety, boredom, or disappointment will be less likely to have such
feelings interfere with their academic performance.
] Being better at managing social relationships with classmates and teachers

may allow them to work better with a partner or in a small group and
be comfortable asking a teacher for help when they don’t understand
something. And intrinsic motivation makes it easier to persist until one
understands academic material.
Emotional Intelligence in
the Workplace, Continued
] One comprehensive analysis of people in nearly 200 different jobs
published in 2010 found that emotional intelligence was strongly linked
to better performance only in those jobs where paying attention to and
managing emotions is directly tied to success. They described these jobs as
high in “emotional labor.”
] For people in particular jobs, such as salespeople, real estate agents,

counselors, and call-center representatives, knowing how to read emotions
and respond effectively is an essential aspect of success, especially in
stressful situations. But for people in jobs where reading emotions isn’t
important, emotional intelligence actually is not linked with success.
] In fact, for some particular types of jobs, such as mechanics, scientists,

and factory workers, more EQ was actually associated with weaker job
performance. One explanation is that paying attention to emotions can
distract from the typical requirements of some jobs.
194
] Another wrinkle is that emotional intelligence can have a dark side if

developed in isolation from other traits, such as conscientiousness. After
all, an ability to understand and manage emotions is a skill that can be
used for negative as well as positive outcomes.
] Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that for people with
self-serving, Machiavellian tendencies, skills in emotional intelligence
can be used to manipulate, embarrass, and undermine other people for
personal gain. The takeaway point is that skills of emotional intelligence
need to be supported by other skills or attributes to lead to positive
outcomes.
TRAINING PROGRAMS
Given the benefits of emotional intelligence, there

has been interest in both schools and businesses in
teaching these abilities as skills that can be learned.
Many school districts now provide some type of training
in these skills, under the expectation that fostering
social and emotional skills will lead to
better academic performance.
Additionally, numerous medical
schools and hospitals have
started providing training in
emotional intelligence for
doctors.
195
Developing Abilities
] This lesson concludes with a look at what we know about developing
the abilities underlying emotional intelligence. First, a person’s level of
emotional intelligence tends to have a relatively stable baseline across the
life span.
] It can change, but without deliberate effort it operates much like a

personality trait or metabolism or other generally stable characteristic. This
probably means that emotional intelligence reflects some combination of
early childhood experiences and genetics.
] Second, for most people, emotional intelligence does tend to increase

with age, with a peak appearing at about age 60. This resembles the trend
toward increasing crystallized intelligence as we get older.
] Third, the fact that people develop greater emotional intelligence with
more life experience suggests that emotional intelligence involves skills that
can be taught at any age. For instance, it is possible to learn and improve
social skills. Many training programs designed to increase emotional
intelligence focus on teaching active listening skills.
] Another strategy is increasing empathy for other people. While it’s

certainly true that some people are naturally more empathetic than others,
anyone can develop this ability with practice. In fact, Carol Dweck, a
social psychologist at Stanford University, and her colleagues have found
that simply telling someone that empathy can be developed increases their
willingness to try to understand someone else’s perspective.
196
A Study on Learning
] One study found that watching high-quality televised dramas can improve
people’s ability to identify what other people are feeling. Researchers
assigned some college students to watch an episode of an award-winning
television drama, such as Mad Men or The Good Wife. Other students
watched a nature documentary. Another group of students watched
nothing at all.
] Then, all students were tested on their emotional intelligence using a

classic test: People are shown 36 pairs of eyes and have to choose one of
four words that best describes what the person in the photo is feeling—
jealous, panicked, arrogant, or hateful.
] People who watched a TV drama were more accurate than those who
watched a nature documentary. And people who watched the nature
documentary didn’t do much better than those who watched nothing
at all, suggesting that viewing dramas, which expose us to different
people’s emotions, can play an essential role in increasing our emotional
intelligence.
] Not everything in the findings depended on the specific program being

watched. Women in general were better at identifying the correct emotion
than men. These findings are in line with those from other research
showing that women tend to be higher in emotional intelligence than
men, whether because women are biologically more attuned to emotions or
because women are taught to pay more attention to emotions and therefore
develop skills in emotion regulation.
197
] The idea that emotional intelligence is some combination of innate

biology and learned behavior illustrates a broader disagreement within the
psychology community about how to understand emotional intelligence.
The fact that emotional intelligence can improve with more life experience
and training has led critics to say that it should be called a set of skills
rather than the more fixed and stable type of ability implied by the word
intelligence.
Reading
Duckworth, Grit.
Goleman, Emotional Intelligence.
198
Adversity and
Resilience
This lesson begins by looking at

some of the benefits of adversity.
Then, it considers why some people
have an easier time recovering from
traumatic events than others. People
have a tremendous ability to adapt
to negative events. Additionally, it
is possible—and indeed desirable—
to see some positives even in the
23
midst of terrible trauma and loss. The
ability to find hope is an essential
part of coping with adverse life
circumstances.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
199
Lesson 23 | Adversity and Resilience
Posttraumatic Growth
and Research
] An instrument called the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory assesses five
distinct components of posttraumatic growth: personal strength, new
possibilities in life, relationships with others, appreciation of life, and
spirituality. Each of these types of growth helps people cope with traumatic
events in a positive way.
] People who are able to find some

positive aspects in difficult situations
experience better outcomes. For
example, people who can find
some benefit in their cancer
diagnosis report lower levels
of distress and depression,
higher levels of positive
affect, and an overall
increased quality of life.
] How exactly is it possible that experiencing adverse life events changes our
thinking for the better? One explanation is that people who have survived
negative experiences are also better able to recognize, appreciate, and take
pleasure in the small joys and simple pleasures of life.
] Another benefit of experiencing some adversity is that adverse experiences

seem to increase our ability to empathize with and connect with others,
which feels good. The link between experiencing adverse events and greater
compassion helps explain why people who have experienced great loss often
show changes in personality, including increases in altruism.
200
] In fact, some research demonstrates that adversity tends to increase people’s

likelihood of engaging in prosocial behavior. It’s important to keep in
mind, however, that recovering from trauma takes time.
Increasing Resilience
] Research also points to the benefits of some adversity in increasing
resilience, meaning the ability to respond to negative experiences in an
adaptive and productive way. For example, in one study, researchers
examined the effects of a 10-day sailing trip in New Zealand on resilience
in teenagers.
] This trip involved relatively tough conditions, including hard physical

work, seasickness, bad weather, crowded living conditions, and extensive
daily chores. The researchers measured levels of resilience in students
during the trip and again five months later, and then compared their
resilience to those of other college students who did not participate in such
a trip.
] Students who participated in this 10-day trip had higher levels of resilience
immediately at its conclusion but also over time, five months later. There
were no initial differences in resilience between students who did and did
not go on the trip, so it isn’t the case that students who were already higher
in resilience chose to go.
] Instead, experiencing tough conditions helped students develop the

skills needed to cope with other challenges and probably confidence in
their ability to manage future stressors. That experience in turn led to
higher levels of resilience, which likely paid off when students faced other
challenges later on.
201
More Serious Adversity

] Longitudinal studies of more serious adversity provide additional
evidence for the unexpected benefits of such experience. In a 2017 study,
researchers compared neurotic personality traits worldwide through data
collected from more than 7 million people. The term neurotic here refers
to a personality that is anxious, fearful, and tending toward focusing on
negative aspects of most situations.
] The researchers pulled out data specifically from those in Germany and
compared rates of neuroticism for those living in 89 different German
cities. The researchers initially predicted that people living in cities that
had experienced the greatest destruction during World War II bombings
would show higher rates of neuroticism and psychological problems.
] Instead, people living in cities that had undergone more substantial

bombing had lower rates of neuroticism than those living in less-affected
cities. In fact, people living in these regions seem to cope better with other
stressors. For example, economic downturns were associated with higher
rates of clinical depression in other parts of Germany but not in those
where major wartime destruction occurred.
] Although the specific mechanisms leading to this greater resilience across

three generations are not known, the researchers posit that experiencing
the major destruction of cities may have led to prolonged changes such as
leading people in the city to pull together as a community. Those in turn
helped them buffer subsequent negative events.
] This finding about how experiencing difficult life events helps us build
coping skills explains a puzzling discovery in the literature: People who
have experienced a few stressful events, such as a divorce or natural
disaster, had better psychological well-being than people who had not
experienced any major stressor.
202
] In fact, those with relatively stress-free lives were no happier than those
who had experienced as many as a dozen major life events. The happiest
were those who had experienced some, but not too many, stressful events:
two to six.
] These findings tell us that resilience doesn’t happen by accident, at least for
most of us. Instead, we get better at recovering from difficult events with
practice. People who have managed to avoid experiencing major challenges
haven’t had a chance to develop
these skills; then, when difficult
things do happen, they have
BETTER WITH AGE
trouble coping.
] There are, of course, limits to Encouraging research

the value of adversity. After all, has shown that our ability
people who experienced a high to focus on positive
number of difficult events—more experiences seems to
than six—were worse off than increase with age. It is
even seen in patterns of
those who experienced only a
brain activation.
moderate number of events.
Adaptive Factors
] Some people seem to have an easier time adapting to adverse experiences
than others. Several factors make a difference. One factor is the
community around us. People who have a strong support system—within
their immediate family but also a broader community—are more likely to
grow following traumatic experiences.
] Another factor helping some people adapt to adverse experiences is

personality. Some people have particular traits that seem to help them
respond in a positive way, even in the midst of major challenges.
203
Y They tend to be high in self-esteem and to generally have a positive view

of themselves and their ability to cope. When bad things happen, they
feel confident things will get better over time.
Y They are also good at managing and regulating their emotions.

Essentially, they are high in emotional intelligence.
] It is clear that thinking about loss in a positive frame—by focusing on

what we’ve gained from difficult experiences, not just what they’ve taken
away—is a good idea. It’s impossible to go through life avoiding all bad
experiences, but we can control how we choose to see these tremendously
difficult experiences.
Five Strategies to
Build Resilience
] Increasing resilience is like building a muscle: It takes time and effort.
This lesson concludes by covering five strategies supported by empirical
research.
] First, taking care of oneself is critical. Adverse experiences are inherently

stressful, meaning they put tremendous wear and tear on the body. This
is also why it’s especially important to stay strong mentally and physically.
Basic self-care that may seem more challenging also becomes even more
important: Getting enough sleep and eating a healthy diet help, as does
avoiding a reliance on drugs or alcohol, for instance.
] Second, finding some meaning is helpful. In other words, resilience

involves finding something to learn from the experience and then
moving on.
204
] A third strategy is to build and maintain connections. One of the

challenges of finding happiness following a great loss is that we often
feel isolated and alone in our grief. It’s therefore important to make
connections with other people who understand loss and can provide
company. This is one of the reasons why people often find both formal and
informal support groups helpful.
] Fourth, writing helps. Some people have a tendency to replay bad events
over and over again, which makes it hard to let them go and move forward.
But writing about difficult events is a simple strategy that can help us
move past them.
] Finally, practicing positive thinking is another way to boost resilience. If

a person is struggling to cope with a major loss, it can be difficult to find
much happiness. Trying to find a few good moments every day goes a
long way.
Reading
Pennebaker, Opening Up.
Sandberg and Grant, Option B.
205
Motivation:
Eating,
Sex, and
Achievement
Motivation is understood as a set

of factors that activate, direct, and
maintain behavior, usually toward
some goal. Our motivations energize
and direct all types of behavior. This
lesson looks at where they come from,
24
specifically in the areas of eating, sex,
and achievement.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
206
Lesson 24 | Motivation: Eating, Sex, and Achievement
Biological Drives for Motivation

] Some theories of motivation focus on innate biological processes as the
factors that control behavior. One of the earliest theories within the field of
psychology was instinct theory, which proposed that much of our behavior
results from fixed, unlearned patterns that probably had advantages over the
course of human evolution. However, instinct theory can also be circular in
its reasoning and therefore hard to definitively prove.
] By the 1930s, theories about basic biological instincts were being replaced
by a focus on psychological drives. This led to drive-reduction theory.
Here, motivation begins with a physiological need—some type of lack or
deficiency—that elicits a psychological drive toward behavior that will
reduce and satisfy that need.
] For example, when we are hungry, we experience a need to eat. Once we’ve
eaten, that drive goes away, and you achieve a state of equilibrium, known
as homeostasis. However, that’s also a problem for drive-reduction theory: It
proposes that after a need is met, we’ve satisfied that need, so the drive will
go away.
] But that’s often not what happens in the real world. For example, a person
who feels a need for adventure may feel driven to seek bigger and bigger
adventures rather than being satisfied with just one.
] The fact that drives can be increased as well as reduced led to the development
of a new theory of motivation, known as optimal arousal theory. According to
this theory, people are motivated to achieve and maintain an optimal level of
arousal, which can also lead to their best performance.
] Most research on the intersection of motivation and performance suggests

that peak performance occurs at a moderate level of arousal. However,
people differ in what level of arousal feels best—that is, where they feel
happiest and do their best work.
207
Psychological Drives
for Motivation
] Even biological theories of motivation that recognize people vary in what
level of arousal feels best still have various limitations. After all, we can all
think of times that we’ve eaten something even when we aren’t hungry.
] Psychological theories of motivation therefore explain behavior as

motivated by other factors—not just our biology. According to incentive
theory, motivation results from external stimuli that pull us in certain
directions. For instance, the sight of a slice of cake on a dessert tray may
nudge us to order it, even if we aren’t that hungry.
] External rewards are used in all types of situations to motivate behavior

in the absence of a biological need. However, external incentives can also
backfire. When people start to see their behavior as driven entirely by the
desire for some external reward, their internal motivation fades.
208
Motivation and Eating

] To sum up, motivation is both biological and psychological. To show how
that mixture plays out, this lesson now turns to how motivation influences
three distinct types of behavior: eating, sex, and achievement.
] Eating is clearly motivated at least in part by basic biological principles: We

need to eat to survive. It makes sense that we pay attention to physiological
cues that indicate hunger.
] But what are these cues? Early researchers believed that stomach
contractions or growls—signs that the stomach is empty—trigger hunger.
However, research also shows that even people who have had their
stomachs removed (due to cancer, for example) experience hunger. Other
biological cues to hunger include levels of glucose as well as particular
hormones.
] Particular parts of the brain, including the hypothalamus, help regulate

biological cues about eating and feelings of hunger. For instance, when
different parts of the hypothalamus are damaged in experiments using rats,
the animals either gain huge amounts of weight or starve to death. This
tells us that the hypothalamus plays an important role in regulating the
motivation to eat.
] But it’s also quite clear that psychosocial factors play an even stronger
role. We’ve all eaten when we’re not hungry, and we’ve all made deliberate
choices not to eat something even when we did feel hungry.
] These psychosocial motivations to eat are often shaped by various

environmental cues. There are external cues that often lead us to eat, even
when we aren’t hungry. For instance, just seeing pictures of high-fat foods
can stimulate parts of the brain in charge of appetite.
209
] Another type of external cue is the culture we’re in, which influences
when we eat, where we eat, and how much. Mood is also an external cue.
For instance, many people eat as a way to regulate their moods and in
particular to feel better.
] Eating disorders are serious psychological disorders in which eating

behavior is not at all motivated by purely biological factors. For instance,
people with anorexia nervosa show a drastic reduction in their weight.
They have an intense fear of becoming obese and tend to feel fat even
when they are dangerously thin.
] This disorder, which is much more common in girls and women than
in men and boys, can lead to serious and long-lasting health problems,
including osteoporosis, bone fractures, and heart damage. It can also
be fatal.
] Another relatively common eating disorder is bulimia nervosa. People with

bulimia engage in repeated episodes of binge eating coupled with attempts
to purge these calories, such as by vomiting, use of laxatives, or excessive
exercise. This repeated binging and purging leads to a variety of medical
problems.
] Biological causes of eating disorders could include levels of particular

neurotransmitters, hypothalamus disorders, or genetic or hormonal
disorders. But environmental factors clearly also play a role. Families of
people with eating disorders often show particular patterns, including
relatively high rates of alcoholism and depression.
] This finding suggests that disordered eating may be an attempt to regulate

mood. Women with anorexia in particular often come from families
that are competitive, high-achieving, and protective. This pressure may
lead them to set high standards and focus intently on how they appear
to others. Additionally, broader sociocultural factors, such as the strong
emphasis on thinness in women seen in most Western cultures, are also
thought to contribute.
210
Motivation and Sex

] Another behavior that is clearly motivated by both biological and social
factors is sex. The most well-known research on sexual behavior was
conducted by William Masters and Virginia Johnson in the 1960s.
] Their research involved both observing sexual behavior and monitoring

physiological changes during sexual arousal. This was the first scientific
effort to help diagnose and treat sexual disorders and dysfunction. This
work was described in their best-selling book Human Sexual Response.
] The motivation to have sex is nature’s clever and pleasurable way of

making people procreate. Sex also leads to other benefits: It fulfills a need
for connection, intimacy, the release of sexual tension, and so on.
] Sex hormones activate our interest in engaging in sexual behavior, but

this works differently in men and women. Male sex hormone levels for
testosterone tend to remain at a consistent level.
] For women, sex hormone levels for estrogen shift over time but consistently
peak each month during ovulation, when fertility is highest. (Women after
menopause, while not losing interest in sex, no longer experience sexual
desire as fluctuating on a regular monthly cycle.)
] Men and women also show pretty consistent differences in their attitudes
about casual sex. For instance, take men’s greater interest in casual sex
and having multiple partners. Some psychologists believe that this is
fundamentally based on evolutionary history and the different strategies
men and women are presumed to have needed to use to pass on their genes.
] Women spend considerable time pregnant and nursing, and they should be
motivated to form a stable relationship with a single person who will help
ensure the survival of their children by providing food, shelter, protection,
211
and so on. Men, on the other hand, should be motivated to have sex with
as many different people as possible because each act of sex increases the
odds that their genes will be passed on.
] Other researchers believe that these gender differences are largely a result
of social norms, not biology. A sexual double standard, in which male
sexual behavior tends to be encouraged more than female sexual behavior,
continues to exist, even if it has weakened somewhat.
] Both men and women consider casual sex more acceptable for men than
for women, and a 2019 study found this to be true even when the person
being evaluated is a friend or acquaintance. Therefore, it’s not surprising
that women report less interest in casual sex, given the potential for such
behavior to be seen in a negative light.
212
Motivation and Achievement

] This lesson concludes with a look at achievement motivation, meaning
the desire to excel, especially in competition with others. According to
work by David McClelland starting in the 1940s, people who are high on
achievement motivation tend to show six distinct characteristics:
Y A preference for moderately difficult tasks that challenge them but are
not impossible. They want to be challenged, so they avoid tasks that
are too easy, but they also don’t want to waste time on tasks they can’t
successfully accomplish.
Y Competitiveness. They like tasks and pursue careers that offer an

opportunity to compete with others.
Y Preference for clear goals and feedback on their progress. They like to
work on tasks in which they have a clear outcome to work toward and
can get feedback from qualified people on their performance.
Y Ability to self-regulate and take personal responsibility. People who

are high in achievement motivation are good at delaying immediate
gratification and instead focus on longer-term goals. They also like
having control over the tasks they work on, so they can feel a sense of
personal satisfaction when they do a good job.
Y Mental toughness and persistence. They keep working, even when they
meet obstacles.
Y More accomplished. As a result of all these characteristics, people who

are high in need for achievement generally do perform at a higher level.
They tend to get higher grades in school and achieve at higher levels in
their careers.
213
] Where does such a drive for achievement come from? A study published in
2016 by researchers at the Duke University School of Medicine evaluated
people’s genomes using so-called polygenic scoring and found a clear link
between genes and educational attainment. Moreover, people with this
same type of polygenic score also have more successful careers. These
findings suggest that achievement may be at least partially a reflection of
our biology.
] But, as with other motives, our drive to achieve is also shaped by our
environment. For instance, children who are high in achievement
motivation often have parents who encourage independence and self-
reliance and provide rewards for successful performance.
] Research on birth order suggests another environmental influence.

Firstborn and only children tend to be higher on achievement motivation
than later-born children. They also tend to achieve at higher levels.
] It’s fairly likely that parents pay more attention to their firstborns, which
leads to greater reinforcement of their accomplishments. But keep in
mind that firstborns may also pay a price for their high achievement:
They tend to lack social skills and be less popular.
214
] Additional evidence for the influence of environment comes from research

showing that men tend to be higher in competitiveness and achievement
motivation than women. Thanks to a variety of research studies
demonstrating the power of modelling and observational learning, we now
understand that these gender differences in achievement motivation are
largely, or perhaps even entirely, a result of social learning.
] Men and boys are often praised for their high achievement. However,
women and girls may learn there can be negative consequences—even
a social backlash—for seeming too smart or too focused on career
advancement.
] Moreover, stereotyped perceptions of likeability and competence for

men often go hand in hand. For women, perceptions of likeability and
competence can be inversely related.
] However, an important finding about the influence of social learning

on achievement motivation is that the same process can work in both
directions and therefore has the potential to help reduce gender differences
in achievement. The way to do so is to highlight and celebrate women who
achieve tremendous success, whether in business, research, education, or
politics.
Reading
Oettingen, Rethinking Positive Thinking.
Pink, Drive.
215
Emotions:
Why You Feel
Psychologists describe emotions as

a complex pattern of feelings, which
includes three components: arousal
(signaled by factors like a racing
heart), cognitions (such as thoughts
and expectations), and expressive
behavior (such as smiles, frowns,
and tears). There is widespread
agreement that emotions consist of
25
all three components, but there is less
consensus on how these different
components work together to lead to
emotions.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
216
Lesson 25 | Emotions: Why You Feel
The James-Lange, Cannon-Bard,

and Two-Factor Theories
] One theory describing how we experience emotions, dating back to the
19th-century American psychologist William James, is the James-Lange
Theory. This theory essentially says that a person’s arousal based on the
stimulus and their resulting behavior after the stimulus determines the
emotion they feel.
] Another model, the Cannon-Bard theory, proposed in the 1920s that

physiological arousal and emotional experience happen simultaneously.
We don’t have to wait for the body to register a physical reaction before we
experience an emotion.
] The starting point of the James-Lange theory of arousal before emotion

is now more widely accepted. On the other hand, the Cannon-Bard
theory did add an important insight into our understanding of emotions:
Information about the situation we are in does influence the emotion
we feel.
] A third model describing the experience of emotion, developed in

the 1960s, builds on the awareness that emotion is determined by a
combination of our physiological response and cues from the environment
we’re in. According to this two-factor theory of emotion, physiological
arousal definitely plays a role in the experience of emotion.
] However, it’s not just the arousal. It’s also how we interpret, or appraise,
that arousal. For instance, the physical experience of arousal—the fact
one’s heart is beating faster—is not uniquely distinct for each emotion. If
a person feels their heart beating rapidly, they look to their environment to
make sense of their arousal.
217
The Facial-Feedback Hypothesis

] Each of the three models described so far differ in how they describe
the various possible roles arousal and interpretation play in determining
emotions. However, all three of these models propose that we experience
some type of stimulus, which leads to physiological arousal and an
emotion.
] Another model describing the experience of emotion proposes the reverse:

Adopting a particular facial expression or body posture can actually create,
or at least intensify, the experience of a particular emotion. This model is
known as the facial-feedback hypothesis.
] For example, in one of the first tests of this hypothesis in 1988, researchers
asked people to rate some cartoons while holding a pen between their
teeth. Some people were told to hold the pen so that their faces held a
neutral expression; others were told to smile. In line with their predictions,
people holding a smile rated the cartoons as funnier than those holding a
neutral expression.
] This finding largely reverses part of

the original view by William James
that arousal and behavior lead to
emotions. Instead, this approach
describes our mere behaviors as
creating the arousal. Although
follow-up studies suggested
these effects may be relatively
small, some researchers went
on to record more
impressive results.
218
] The finding that our facial expressions influence the emotions we feel is
also supported by some fascinating research on a potentially unintended
side effect of drugs that inhibit people’s ability to show certain facial
expressions. For example, the drug Botox is commonly used to reduce the
appearance of wrinkles.
] Injections of this drug into the forehead relax frown lines that increase
naturally with age and may therefore produce a more youthful appearance.
But some evidence from a study published in 2011 also suggests that
people who receive Botox injections, which inhibits their ability to hold
certain facial expressions, have more trouble understanding what other
people are feeling.
Emotional Contagion
] Our physiological arousal, our thoughts, and even our facial expressions
and other expressive behavior all influence the experience of emotions. Our
emotions are also influenced by those around us. Understanding someone
else’s emotion can mean enacting that emotion, and this is why emotions
can be contagious.
] One of the clearest studies to demonstrate the power of emotional

contagion on a wider scale examined data available from what had
originally been a study of risk factors related to cardiovascular disease.
Their findings clearly indicated that happiness is contagious. People who
were surrounded by many happy people showed increases in happiness
over time.
] Remarkably, the study found that happiness can be increased indirectly,

meaning through broader connections within a social network. For
example, having a happy friend increases one’s own happiness probability
about 15%. But having a friend who has a happy friend increases one’s
chance of happiness nearly 10%.
219
] Although these findings point to the advantages of having happy people in

our social networks, these relationships can also work in the opposite way.
Being around people who are negative can make a person feel worse.
] Additionally, online social networks can also influence our emotions. On

a practical level, all of these findings on emotional contagion point to the
importance of trying to find happy friends.
Cultural Influences
] Another consistent influence on the emotions we feel is our culture. In
some ways, emotions are very similar across different cultures. Cross-
cultural research generally shows that the same set of 6 to 12 basic
emotions are seen throughout the world, with researchers differing mostly
over how many to regard as truly distinct.
] Based on a coding of movements by the 43 facial muscles, Paul Ekman

suggested there are just six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise,
fear, disgust, anger. Follow-up work at the University of Glasgow in 2016,
however, suggested that there are actually only four truly basic emotions.
] These researchers combine surprise and fear into one emotion because they
both start as a wide-eyed expression. They also suggest combining anger
and disgust because both start with a wrinkling of the nose.
] Cross-cultural research also consistently shows that facial expressions

of emotion are the same. For example, a smile can be an indication of
happiness, and a frown can be an indication of sadness across all cultures.
220
] But in other ways, there are considerable differences in how people in

different cultures think about and express emotions. For example, people
in different cultures differ in terms of the specific features they see as
indicating an angry face or a happy face. A 2012 study found that people
from East Asian cultures rely more on the eyes when trying to interpret
facial expressions, whereas Western Europeans and North Americans rely
more on the eyebrows and mouth.
] These differences likely reflect differences in cultural norms about emotion

expression. A mouth is a very expressive feature, so in cultures with norms
of overt emotion, this is a smart feature to focus on. But in cultures that
tend to mask emotions, paying attention to more subtle features like the
eyes is likely more informative.
221
] Cultures all have distinctive display rules, meaning norms that convey
when and how emotions should be expressed through words, body
language, and facial expressions. In some cultures, openly expressing
all sorts of emotions is the norm. This is more commonly the case in
individualistic cultures, such as the United States, Western European
countries, and Australia.
] In other cultures, people are not so expressive of what they are feeling.
In many Asian countries, people are encouraged to hide their emotions,
especially when they are in the presence of people in a higher power or
status position.
] Cultures also differ in their display rules about physical contact as well
as when or whether to use direct eye contact, how close to stand next to
someone, and how frequently to touch someone when talking to them.
For instance, people from East Asian cultures tend to interpret direct eye
contact as angrier and less approachable than do people from Western
European cultures.
] Cultures also differ in their reliance on situational cues to interpret facial

expressions. In 2008, a team of researchers from Canada and Japan asked
people to view images of people with different facial expressions—happy,
angry, or sad.
] In each case, this target person appeared at the center of an image along
with four other people. In some cases, the target person’s expression was
the same as that of the background figures, but in other cases, it differed.
When North Americans were asked to figure out what the target person
was feeling, they relied on that particular person’s facial expression.
] But for Japanese people, the situation mattered. They rated the target
person as feeling the emotion more intensely if their facial expressions
matched those of the background figures than if it did not. The researchers
hypothesize that these differences also reflect cultural norms.
222
] People raised in North America typically focus on the individual in

isolation. However, Asian cultures typically focus on individuals in terms
of their relationships to others in their group.
Sources of Differences
] One group of researchers has proposed that these differences reflect
historical heterogeneity, meaning the extent to which a country’s current
population is a result of migration from many different countries versus a
small number of countries. To test this hypothesis, the researchers carefully
analyzed cultural norms for displaying emotions from 32 countries as well
as historical patterns of migration over the last 500 years.
] As they predicted, countries with more migration tended to be more

expressive. The researchers believe that over time, in countries with more
migration from different countries, people need to beef up their facial
expressions as a way to overcome language barriers. Therefore, facial
expressions become more pronounced in countries like the United States,
Canada, and Australia.
] In a follow-up study, this same team of researchers focused specifically

on one kind of facial expression: the smile. Once again, they found that
migration patterns mattered.
] People from countries with more migration from diverse countries, such as
France and the United States, tended to see smiles as friendly gestures. But
people from countries such as Japan, with less migration and from fewer
countries, tended to see smiling as a function of a social hierarchy; for
instance, smiling might indicate that a person feels inferior.
223
Wealth and Hardship

] Yet another difference affecting how we experience more complex emotions
is the degree of wealth or hardship. In 2018, researchers at the University
of California, Irvine examined whether people in different socioeconomic
classes within the United States experience happiness in different ways.
] They found that people from wealthier backgrounds were more likely
to experience self-focused emotions, such as pride, amusement, and
contentment. People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds reported
experiencing more other-oriented emotions, such as compassion and love.
They also experienced greater awe. There were no income differences in
the tendency to experience enthusiasm.
] This study didn’t examine why these differences occurred, but one
possibility is that people from wealthier backgrounds may be raised in
families and communities that place a higher priority on independence
and self-sufficiency. People from less wealthy backgrounds may have
experienced more struggling while growing up, which leads to a greater
emphasis on interpersonal connections, love, and compassion.
Reading
Barrett, How Emotions Are Made.
Ekman, Emotions Revealed.
224
Attraction, Love,
and Lasting
Relationships
Relationships are a central topic
within the field of psychology. Our
need to form close bonds with other
people is fundamental. In fact, close
relationships are the single best
predictor of our happiness and even
influence how long we live. Although
close relationships of all types play a
substantial role in psychological and
physical well-being, most research in
26
psychology has focused on romantic
relationships, so that is the primary
focus of this lesson.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
225
Lesson 26 | Attraction, Love, and Lasting Relationships
Attraction Factors
] The first research on close
relationships focused on
interpersonal attraction—
basically what factors leads
someone to develop positive
feelings toward another
person. One of the most
important predictors of
attraction is simply getting
to spend more time with
someone. Proximity breeds
attraction.
] It’s not just that we get to

know a person better by
spending time with them.
Simply regularly seeing
someone makes them more
familiar and, in turn, seem
more attractive.
] Another key factor in influencing interpersonal attraction is similarity.

This is the so-called matching hypothesis. We like people who are similar
to ourselves in all sorts of ways, including people who share our attitudes,
values, and interests. We also tend to seek out and find romantic partners
who are at roughly our own level of physical attractiveness.
] Why is similarity such a powerful force? Having things in common may

make it easier to get along with someone else. Similarity may also reduce
conflict about politics, religion, or money.
226
Physical Attractiveness
] Of course, physical attractiveness plays a major role in determining
whether we find someone appealing. But it is more interesting to consider
what we find attractive.
] First, there are particular facial features that are seen across cultures as
generally appealing. Both men and women prefer facial features that
indicate youth, such as big eyes, a small nose, and prominent cheekbones.
We also prefer faces that are more symmetrical, perhaps because symmetry
is a cue to health.
] Other preferences vary. Within Western cultures, for example, there is

generally a view that thinness in women is seen as more attractive, whereas
in other cultures, women with a somewhat heavier weight are deemed more
attractive.
] But even within Western culture, these preferences have changed over
time. Marilyn Monroe was seen as the epitome of attractiveness in the
1950s, and she was clearly substantially heavier than the female body type
that later decades typically saw as most attractive.
] Even if attractiveness—however it’s defined—is generally valued in a

dating partner, physical appearance tends to be more valued by men than
by women. This gender difference has been found across cultures.
The Environment
] There is somewhat strong evidence that in certain cases, the environment
can be more important than the characteristics of the person. One of the
most consistent findings is that physiological arousal leads us to feel more
attracted to people around us.
227
] When we are in a situation that creates arousal, we often ignore the

environmental factors that cause that arousal and assume that our reaction
is due to the person we are with. That leads us to feel more attraction.
Theoretically, even drinking coffee together should create arousal that can
lead to feelings of attraction.
PSYCHOLOGY AND REALITY TELEVISION
Producers of reality television dating shows, like The Bachelor

and The Bachelorette, deliberately create physiological
arousal by sending the contestants on exotic dates. These
extreme dates serve very effectively to create physiological
arousal, which the contestants interpret as intense attraction.
This helps the producers create precisely what they are after:
a strong appearance of people falling in love, which keeps the
audience tuning in to watch the journey.
Relationship Evolution
] How relationships get started matters, but it’s more important how they
evolve over time and whether they last. In psychology, this shift to focusing
on love and relationship maintenance began in the 1970s.
] Zick Rubin, a sociologist, is widely credited for developing the very

first empirical measurement of love in the late 1960s. At the time,
the commonly held view was that liking and loving were on a single
continuum, with love just indicating an extreme form of like.
228
] Rubin’s work changed that view. He developed a scale that assessed both
feelings of liking and loving and found that these were in fact two different
types of feelings. Liking reflects respect and confidence in someone’s
judgment. Love reflects self-disclosure and self-sacrifice.
] The first model of how love changes over time developed within
psychology was by Elaine Hatfield and William Walster in the 1970s.
In the early stages of a romantic relationship, people typically experience
passionate love, meaning a state of intense longing for the other person.
] Passionate love is an all-consuming, tumultuous type of love and can

include intimate self-disclosure and intense sexual attraction. However, it’s
pretty fleeting.
] Over time, most couples evolve into a different kind of love, known
as companionate love. This type of love includes intimacy, respect,
and trust. People care deeply for each other and share a commitment
to the relationship, but the intensity of their feelings is less urgent and
overwhelming. This is the kind of love that endures over time.
] This basic distinction between passionate and companionate love was the
first attempt to categorize different types of love.
] But Robert Sternberg, a professor at Yale

University, developed a new model
known as the triangular theory. This
describes many different types of
love in terms of three potential
components: passion, intimacy,
and commitment. These three
components form the three
corners of a triangle.
229
] Intimacy involves sharing thoughts and feelings, passion involves physical

attraction, and commitment is sticking with the person over time.
Sternberg believed that a healthy relationship includes all three of these
components, which he described as consummate love.
] But he also proposed types of love that include only one or two of the
components. For example, some relationships might have only intimacy,
which he describes as liking. Others might have only passion, which
he describes as infatuation. Relationships held together largely by
commitment are sometimes described as empty love.
] Still others might have intimacy and passion but no commitment—a type
of romantic love often associated with an intense but brief summer fling.
A relationship with intimacy and commitment but no passion is basically
companionate love.
Love in the Brain

] Brain imaging research reveals that love really does look different, even at
a neurological level. This foray into the brain science underlying love was
initiated by Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University.
She had studied 166 different societies around the world and found
evidence of romantic love in 147 of them. That led her to wonder if this
feeling is in fact biologically based.
] She put together a team of scientists to study this question, and in 2005,
they published a groundbreaking study. They analyzed 2,500 brain scans
taken of people looking at a photo of their romantic partner and also of an
acquaintance.
230
] The images showed clear differences in brain activity. People looking at

photos of their romantic partner showed activity in parts of the brain with
high levels of dopamine, the so-called feel-good neurotransmitter. Falling
in love leads people to feel a high not unlike that of an addict using drugs.
] This research also explains why a relationship breakup is so painful:

The brain processes the loss of love in a similar way to how it processes
breaking an addiction to drugs, such as heroin. Additionally, these
findings about how love activates particular parts of the brain help explain
why simply holding the hand of a romantic partner can help reduce pain.
231
Making Love Last and Fights

] We know that loves feels great, but perhaps the most essential question is:
How do we make love last? For a long time within the field of psychology,
the assumption was that couples who really understood each other would
experience happier and longer lasting relationships.
] However, having an accurate understanding of your partner may not really

be what’s key. Instead, people in couples who see each other in an overly
positive way—more positive than the partner sees themselves—tend to be
happier. People who see their partners as smarter, prettier, nicer, funnier,
and so on than the partners see themselves experience higher levels of
satisfaction.
] How does holding these biases lead to greater satisfaction? One explanation
is that overlooking or minimizing the bad helps minimize conflict. People
in happy relationships are also remarkably good at putting seemingly
negative behaviors in the best possible light; for instance, stubbornness
becomes conviction.
] An important caveat about positive illusions is that such biases can lead
one to overlook real and fundamental flaws. A 2008 study found that
for people in relatively bad relationships—those with more severe issues
and negative behavior—ignoring those issues allows problems to worsen
over time.
] That brings up the most important factor influencing relationship

satisfaction: how couples manage conflict. John Gottman, a psychology
professor at the University of Washington, has conducted a series of studies
examining how couples fight and how particular patterns of fighting
predict divorce.
232
] He brings married couples into his lab and asks them to discuss a
contentious topic for 15 minutes. This interaction is videotaped, and then
researchers record not what they fought about but how they fought.
] Then, he follows up with these couples over time to see if they’ve stayed
married. His researcher team is able to predict with greater than 80%
accuracy which couples stay together and which do not.
] As for the predictors of divorce, they find four signs:
Y Criticism, meaning complaining about some core characteristic of their

partner or their relationship.
Y Contempt, meaning acting as if sickened or repulsed by their partner.
Y Defensiveness, meaning protecting themselves and justifying their own

behavior in some way.
Y Stonewalling, meaning emotionally withdrawing, refusing to

participate in the conversation, and shutting down.
] All four of these signs are bad and are associated with an increased
likelihood of divorce. Of them, contempt is the worst. It’s not how much
couples fight but how they fight that is a crucial predictor of happiness in a
relationship and even whether the relationship lasts.
] Moreover, Gottman found that even when discussing a problem, happy

couples had far more positive interactions—laughing, teasing, and showing
affection for one another—than negative interactions. In fact, for every
negative interaction, happy couples had at least five positive ones.
] This tells us is that happy couples do fight. The goal is not avoiding all
conflict. But most of their interactions are positive—or, as Gottman
describes it, couples that last have a “magic ratio” of five to one. A big
secret to lasting love is therefore to balance out the bad with far more good.
233
] Creating arousal can also help maintain and even increase relationship
satisfaction for couples in long-term relationships. Thus, couples who do
new and exciting things together, such as attending live concerts or going
skiing, report higher levels of satisfaction with their relationship than
couples who do pleasant but familiar things together, such as going out to
dinner or taking in a movie.
] This bears out in lab-based research. Couples who do more novel and
challenging things together, such as a three-legged race, show bigger
increases in love and satisfaction than couples who do a more mundane
task, such as walking across a room together.
Reading
Buss, The Evolution of Desire.
Finkel, The All-or-Nothing Marriage.
234
Strategies of
Persuasion
We are constantly exposed to different

types of persuasive messages every
day: Advertisements follow us around
the web, political candidates ask for
our vote, and friends might urge us
to try their favorite new restaurant.
This lesson looks at what influences
27
whether such persuasions work.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
235
Lesson 27 | Strategies of Persuasion
Central and Peripheral

Persuasion
] According to a theory pioneered in 1980, people can focus on central or
peripheral components of persuasive messages. Which components they
focus on depends on their involvement in the message—that is, whether
they are motivated to pay attention to the message and whether they have
the time and energy to do so.
] Sometimes we are highly motivated to pay close attention to a message,

and we truly focus on the information presented. This process is known as
the central or systematic route of persuasion.
] But in other cases, we are not so motivated to devote this time of

sustained attention and focus to a message. In this case, we might be more
influenced by superficial features within a message, such as music playing
in the background. This process is known as the peripheral or heuristic
route of persuasion.
] Both of these routes can work to persuade someone. In the central route,
if the information is strong and compelling, the person will be persuaded;
if it’s not, they won’t. And if the person doesn’t have the motivation and
ability to really evaluate the message, they will rely on peripheral cues. If
those are compelling, persuasion will occur.
Specific Peripheral Cues

] One type of peripheral cue is the credibility of the person delivering the
information. Information from people with some particular knowledge
and expertise can be more convincing, which is why dentists often appear
in ads for toothpastes.
236
] But we also consider whether the person is trustworthy. For instance, we

are less convinced by expert witnesses who are paid for their testimony
than those who testify for free.
] Another type of peripheral cue is the person’s appearance, and attractive

people tend to be more persuasive. A cornerstone of advertising is that
we may unconsciously assume that adopting whatever product attractive
people are promoting could lead us to become more attractive.
] However, attractive people don’t merely hijack us and persuade us to

respond to a peripheral cue. Attractive people may grab and hold our
attention more, meaning we also pay closer attention to the message
content.
] We’re also more persuaded by people who are similar to us in some way,
because we assume that if people like us use a particular product or vote
a certain way, then probably that choice makes sense for us as well. This
is why advertisements try to feature people who are similar to members of
their target audience in some way.
237
] Another type of peripheral cue that leads to persuasion is emotion. For

instance, many messages designed to persuade people to adopt new health-
related behaviors rely on so-called fear appeals, which are warnings about
what will happen if a person fails to follow a particular recommendation.
Compliance
] The aforementioned examples focus on how people come to change their
attitudes and behavior in indirect ways, but such changes can also happen
more directly. The term compliance describes changes in behavior due to a
request from another person, such as a driver giving a friend a ride to the
airport on request, even if it’s inconvenient. The driver had the option to
decline but instead chose to comply with the person’s request.
] There are a variety of different persuasive techniques people use to help

elicit compliance. In fact, a clever study by psychologist Ellen Langer in
1977 revealed that simply providing what appears to be a reason can lead
people to comply with a request.
] Her research assistant tried to cut in front of someone waiting to make

photocopies at the library. More than 90% of people let the research
assistant cut in line when the research assistant asked to do so because they
had to “make copies”—the same reason everyone else was standing in line.
Specific Techniques
] One of the most common techniques used to elicit compliance is the so-
called foot in the door. This is a two-step process, in which someone first
asks for a small commitment that’s easy to agree to.
238
] But this initial small request is then followed up by a second, larger

request. Once a person has agreed to the first request, it’s far harder to say
no to the second request.
] A variation of foot-in-the-door is the lowball technique, which is often

used in big-ticket sales, like a car. This is another two-step technique,
in which a person first commits to something. Then, hidden costs are
revealed, which increase the overall stakes of that commitment.
] The foot-in-the-door strategy and the lowball technique are based on the
idea that agreeing to something increases a person’s commitment and
therefore makes it easier to then agree to larger and larger requests. But
another technique—the door in the face—is based in the exact opposite
principle.
239
] This strategy involves starting with a commitment so large that the person
is almost certainly going to decline. But then, when the requester follows
it up with a smaller ask, that new request seems much more reasonable by
comparison, leading the person to be more likely to agree.
] The door-in-the-face technique works in part by making the second

request seem much more reasonable by comparison to the first request.
But it also works due to another principle of persuasion called the norm of
reciprocity.
] When someone does something nice for us, we often feel inclined to
reciprocate. A person who reduces the size of their ask appears to be doing
something kind, and we feel we should return the favor. This is exactly
why charities seeking a donation often start by sending a free gift, such as a
set of address labels printed with the recipient’s name on them.
] The free gift is also a staple of television infomercials. Another technique

commonly used on infomercials is scarcity—the idea that the viewer needs
to act fast or will miss out.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory

] It’s not only a persuasive message or scarcity that can change our attitudes
and behavior. One of the most famous theories in social psychology
proposes a very different strategy for eliciting such change.
] According to cognitive dissonance theory, the very best way to get people
to change their attitude is to first get them to change their behavior.
This contradiction creates cognitive dissonance—an unpleasant state of
physiological arousal—which we are highly motivated to avoid.
240
] People like to have their attitudes and behaviors in line, so when we

engage in behavior that conflicts with our attitudes, it makes us feel
uncomfortable. If we engage in a behavior that is not in line with our
attitudes, we will change our attitudes to match our behavior to reduce this
arousal.
] This theory proposes a novel route to attitude change: Force a person

to do some kind of behavior, and then their attitude will fall in line to
match it. This theory was developed by Stanford University professor
Leon Festinger, and it was prompted by an observational study of a fringe
religious group known as the Seekers.
] This group believe that the West Coast was going to destroyed by a flood
on a particular day, and that superior beings from a planet known as
Clarion would come to rescue members of this group in a flying saucer.
Members of the group quit their jobs and left most of their possessions
behind and traveled to the specific spot where they would be rescued.
] The flying saucer did not arrive, and there was no flood. However,
members of the group came to feel even more strongly about their initial
beliefs. They interpreted the absence of the flood was a clear sign that
their behavior had made a difference. In the words of one group member,
the Seekers “had spread so much light that God had saved the world from
destruction.”
] Festinger recognized that people can be strongly motivated to resolve

conflicts between their attitudes and behaviors. And this motivation leads
people to favor their own behavior. When dealing with information that
directly contradicts preexisting beliefs, they adapt the beliefs to justify
their own behavior.
241
Testing and Using the Theory

] In the first empirical test of this theory, researchers brought in college
students to perform an extremely boring task. Then, some students were
offered $1 to tell the next student up that the task was fun, while some
were given $20.
] All students agreed to lie, probably due to pressure from being asked by the
researcher. But the amount they were given mattered in terms of how they
evaluated the experiment when asked by a new researcher.
] People who were paid $20 to lie to the other student accurately reported
that they found the study pretty boring. But people who were given only
$1 actually said they somewhat enjoyed participating.
] Researchers believe the amount paid influenced how people came to see
the task. People who were paid a large sum could justify their lie to the
other student about how fun the task was: After all, it was a pretty minor
lie, and they got $20.
] But people who were paid only $1 were in a tough spot. Were they really
willing to look someone else in the eye and tell them this task was fun
and therefore lie to them for such a small sum? This seems like a pretty
insufficient reason to tell this lie, so the people receiving only $1 convinced
themselves that they really did find the task somewhat enjoyable.
] That method of attitude change can work in all types of real-world settings
because people want to avoid feeling contradictions between two attitudes
or between their attitudes and behavior. For instance, simply asking people
to sign a petition in favor of recycling or following speed limit laws pushes
their attitudes more in favor of such policies and changes their behavior.
242
Persuasion in the Brain

] Beyond which strategies and techniques are most effective in general,
research is now examining how the people’s brains respond in distinct
ways to different types of persuasive messages. In a study published in
2020, researchers looked at how people responded to two different types of
advertisements for the same product.
] They found that some people were more persuaded by an approach that
focused on emotional reactions to the product and the joy using it would
create. Others were more persuaded by a rational argument, emphasizing
the useful features of the product.
] The researchers found these same preferences in patterns of brain

activation: The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is most active when people
are seeing the type of message that matches their own preference. This
part of the brain processes emotional responses and decision-making, so
this finding essentially shows that different types of messages are most
persuasive for different people.
] That’s perhaps the most important takeaway from the psychology of

persuasion: Sometimes, the route of persuasion will be rational and
systematic, but other times, it may be based on heuristic cues or emotional
appeals. How to best persuade and influence someone depends on the
person one hopes to persuade.
Reading
Cialdini, Influence.
Tavris and Aronson, Mistakes
Were Made (but Not by Me).
243
Conformity,
Social Loafing,
and Obedience
People will do things in a group setting

that they would never do on their own.
This lesson looks at why. Specifically,
it discusses how the tendency to
conform to members of our group
seems to be hardwired into our brains.
It also describes another powerful
influence on behavior: orders by a
28
trusted authority figure.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
244
Lesson 28 | Conformity, Social Loafing, and Obedience
Testing Conformity
] In one of the most famous demonstrations
of the power of a group to push people
to conform, Solomon Asch brought in
students in the mid-1950s to participate in
what they were told was a study on visual
discrimination. Participants were asked to
look at a target line and then at three other
comparison lines. They were also asked to
determine which of the three options was
the same length as the target line.
] This is an easy task, and when people do it

on their own, they make virtually no errors.
However, Asch brought in students to do this study in groups of seven to
nine, but in reality, only one person per group was not in on the game.
The others were all accomplices of the experimenter and had been told to
deliberately give a wrong answer.
] By the time the only real participant was asked to give an answer, he or
she had already heard five people give a wrong answer. On the first few
line judgment trials, everyone gave the correct answer. But then, the other
people start giving what were clearly the same wrong answer. Thirty-seven
percent of the time, people also gave this wrong answer to conform with
the rest of the group.
] Remarkably, the people in this study had no particular need to fit in with
the other people in their group. They weren’t their friends or teammates.
Yet people frequently gave an answer that they knew was wrong to
fit in with other members of the group. The findings from this study
provide clear evidence of conformity, meaning the tendency to change
our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors to fit in with other members of
our group.
245
Why We Conform
] In some cases, we conform because we assume that other people provide
important information that we need. This type of conformity is motivated
by informational social influence.
] In other cases, we conform because we want to be liked and accepted. This

type of conformity is motivated by normative social influence. Normative
social influence explains why we often follow what those around us are
doing—for instance, in how we dress or the music we prefer.
] Why do we feel so much pressure to conform? The answer is in part

because people who deviate from the norm often experience negative
consequences, such as embarrassment, awkwardness, and even rejection
from the group. It’s far more comfortable to fit in with others than to
stand alone.
CONFORMITY IN TEENS
The drive to conform and the fear of social rejection are

especially strong among teens, whose focus on social
information seems to be caused by hormonal changes
brought on by puberty that lead to physiological changes in
the brain. Adolescents are intensely focused on belonging to
a group.
] Conforming also feels better in our brains. Researchers in one study

published in 2009 asked women to rate other women’s attractiveness and
then showed them how others had rated these same women.
246
] Brain imaging data showed that when the participants discovered that
their ratings differed from those of others, particular parts of the brain—
the rostral cingulate zone and the ventral striatum—were activated. These
patterns of brain activity were similar to those seen when someone makes a
mistake while learning.
] The brain was basically saying, “You’ve made a mistake; please correct it.”
Conforming feels good, like we’re correcting a mistake, while deviating
from the group feels like we’re making a mistake.
] Along the same lines, the experience of social pain, such as being
ostracized, is neurologically similar to physical pain. Both social ostracism
and physical pain activate the anterior insula, which is involved in
regulating pain and negative emotions. They also both activate the dorsal
anterior cingulate cortex, which is believed to serve as an alarm system for
the brain.
Social Loafing
] Humans also have a fairly natural tendency to reduce our own contributions
to a task when they’ll be combined with those of others in the group.
Psychologists refer to this reduced effort as social loafing. People socially loaf
in group settings from the classroom to the workplace because they believe
they can hide in the crowd and their lack of effort won’t be noticed.
] This tendency explains why many students hate group projects: They fear
being forced to do all the work while others choose to slack off. It also
explains why most restaurants add a set service charge when people are
eating out in a group of six or more. Left to their own devices, people in
large groups tend to leave lower tips because each person assumes their
own meager contribution won’t be noticed and that others in the group
will step up to compensate.
247
] Social loafing is especially likely to occur when our own contributions

won’t be clear or measurable. And reduced effort in a group setting occurs
even in cases where it hurts a person’s own outcome.
] For example, college swimmers on a relay team swim slower when only the
total relay time is announced and faster when their individual times are
announced. Social loafing even helps explain why so few people actually
turn out to vote, despite the fact that election outcomes have a substantial
impact on whether policies they support or oppose get enacted.
] The collective effort model describes factors that let us overcome social
loafing: People who believe their contributions will be identified, feel their
efforts will matter, and/or care about the outcome are likely to give full
effort to a group.
Social Dilemmas
] The same conflict between the individual and the group becomes even
sharper in social dilemmas. In these, the choice that leads to the best
outcome for each individual person creates the worst outcome for the
entire group.
] One type of social dilemma is the common resource dilemma. For

example, when communities are experiencing a drought, each individual
person might want to ignore restrictions placed on their water use. But if
enough people choose to ignore restrictions, eventually that resource will
run out and no longer be available for anyone.
] The flip side of taking too much of a common resource is contributing

too little, known as the public goods dilemma. Donating blood is a classic
example of a public good dilemma. If a person needs blood, they expect it
to be available, but only a relatively small number of people actually go in
and regularly donate blood.
248
POSITIVE GROUP INFLUENCE
Despite the challenges of social dilemmas, group influence

is very far from always being a bad thing. In fact, in some
cases people actually perform better in a group setting than
they do alone—a phenomenon known as social facilitation.
Obedience
] Groups influence our attitudes and behavior in subtle ways. But in other
cases, the factors that influence our behavior are far more direct. Behavior
that results from orders by an authority is called obedience.
249
] One of the earliest research studies demonstrating people’s general

willingness to engage in behavior if ordered to do so by an authority was
conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale University. Milgram designed this
study in an attempt to understand what had taken place in Nazi Germany.
] To test people’s willingness to harm an innocent person if ordered to do so

by an authority, Milgram brought people into his lab to participate in what
they were told was a study of memory and learning. When they arrived
at the lab, they were greeted by the experimenter and another person,
who they were told was also participating in the study but was actually an
accomplice of the experimenter.
] The experimenter then described the set-up of the study: To test an

important scientific question about the impact of punishment on the
speed of learning, one person would serve as the teacher and the other as a
learner. The learner would be given a series of word pairs to memorize and
would then be given the first word in the pair and asked to pick out the
right match from a list of four options.
] If the learner chose the wrong option, the teacher would deliver a slight
shock. The shock level would start at the lowest level (15 volts), but it then
would escalate each time the learner gave a wrong answer.
] When the study started, the learner began giving wrong answers. As
instructed, the teacher delivered a shock each time, which increased in
intensity with each mistake. At the 75-volt level, the learner started to
cry out after each shock, and at 150 volts, the learner asked to quit the
experiment, saying their heart was bothering them.
] But whenever the volunteer teacher turned to the experimenter to ask

what they should do, the experimenter pushed them to continue. The
experiment continued until one of two things happened: The designated
teacher refused to continue delivering shocks, or they reached the highest
level of volts, which was 450 volts and was marked as dangerous on the
machine.
250
] About 65% of people continued all the way to 450 volts. The Milgram
study was conducted in the early 1960s, but slightly modified replications
of the Milgram study in both the United States in 2006 and Poland in
2017 have found similarly high rates of obedience.
] Many descriptions of the Milgram study suggest that the participants

easily went along with the experimenter’s orders to shock an innocent
person. However, almost all at some point resisted, turned to the
experimenter and questioned what they should do, and tried to quit.
Videotapes of this study revealed that even those who continued delivering
shocks all the way to the end agonized about what they were doing.
251
Explaining the Study

] The participants were faced with a difficult and unusual dilemma. They
had volunteered to participate in what they believed was a study testing an
important question about how punishment influences learning.
] They trusted the experimenter, who, after all, was a psychology professor at
Yale University. And then, when it became clear that the study didn’t just
involve mild punishment, they didn’t know how to extricate themselves.
] Another key factor that helped push people to continue delivering shocks
was the experimenter’s willingness to take responsibility for any negative
outcomes. The person delivering the shocks can therefore feel absolved of
any wrongdoing.
Positive Influences
] The social psychology of groups offers insights into some pretty depressing
realities about human nature. But our desire to fit in with the group can
also push us toward positive and prosocial behaviors, even when the group
is only an “imagined community” of others who are not physically present.
� Studies have shown the

benefits of emphasizing
what other people are
doing as a way to change
all sorts of behaviors. For
instance, middle school
students engage in less
bullying when they
believe other students
oppose bullying.
252
] Additionally, a study by political scientists found that simply informing

people about their neighbors’ participation in voting can increase voting
turnout. The key takeaway is that humans are deeply social beings: We
want to fit in and be liked, and we are influenced directly and indirectly
by those around us.
Reading
Sunstein, Conformity.
Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect.
253
Stereotypes and
Aggression
The first study within psychology to

examine stereotypes was published in
the 1930s. But it was the period after
World War II that led to an increased
effort to understand the factors that
contributed to the Holocaust and the
psychology of intergroup relations,
29
including stereotypes and aggression.
Those are the topics of this lesson.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
254
Lesson 29 | Stereotypes and Aggression
The Influence and Emergence

of Stereotypes
] Implicit or explicit, stereotypes exert subtle influences on all types of
situations. For instance, people receive fewer responses and lower offers
when selling the exact same item on various online ad sites when it’s held
by a Black person’s hand than a white person’s hand.
] Gender is another source of stereotypes. A study published in 2012 found

that both male and female faculty members consistently rate male job
applicants higher on competency than female applicants, even when their
resumes are identical. People also evaluate job applicants who have a name
cueing older age more poorly than those cueing younger age, preferring
Liam or Emily over Donald or Dorothy.
] One factor in how stereotypes emerge is social learning from our

environment by observing those around us. As for what explains the
ease with which we adopt and use stereotypes: They are a type of mental
shortcut that help us simplify a complex world. Instead of spending
time getting to know and evaluate someone on their merits, relying on
stereotypes allows us to make quick judgments about a person.
Dividing People into Groups

] According to social categorization theory, which was developed in the
1970s, we quickly divide people into groups on the basis of common
attributes, namely into in-groups (people like us) versus out-groups (people
who are not like us). This differentiation can be done on virtually any
grounds: eye color, a person’s home state, and so on.
255
] Although dividing people into groups is not inherently problematic, it can

lead to two biases. First, there’s a tendency to assume that members of the
out-group are all pretty similar to one another, which is known as the out-
group homogeneity effect. This makes it far easier to use stereotypes and
just to see everyone in a particular out-group as the same.
] The second bias resulting from dividing people into in-groups and out-
groups is we show in-group favoritism, meaning a tendency to see people
who are like us in a more favorable light. We also discriminate in favor of
people in our in-group.
] Once we’ve formed stereotypes about members of a particular group,

stereotypes do tend to be maintained, in part because we thereafter
perceive people in that group in a way that is in line with preexisting
beliefs. This is a phenomenon that psychologists describe as perceptual
confirmation.
Effects of Stereotypes
] Once we’ve formed a stereotype, we also treat that person in line with
our beliefs, which in turn elicits behavior that confirms these biases.
This process is known as self-fulfilling prophecy, an expression coined by
sociologist Robert Merton in the late 1940s.
] Similarly, stereotypes we hold about our own identity can also affect
our own performance. In an example of what is called stereotype threat,
students taking standardized tests do worse if reminded of an identity they
hold that is stereotyped as doing poorly in a particular domain.
256
Social Identity Theory

and Aggression
] Social identity theory describes how our group identity influences how we
feel about ourselves. We feel good when members of our in-group succeed,
even if their success has nothing whatsoever to do with us.
] But this desire to feel good about ourselves based on our in-groups can
also lead us to blame members of out-groups when things don’t go well,
even if they bear no responsibility. This is one reason why prejudice and
discrimination tend to increase during economic downturns.
] The tendency to blame out-group members for negative events is an

example of displaced aggression. In fact, many of the factors that
contribute to the creation and maintenance of stereotypes and prejudice
also contribute to aggression.
Learning Aggression
] We learn to behave aggressively just like we learn everything else: We
watch those around us. When parents show aggression, such as when
they yell at a waiter, their children often model that behavior themselves.
This is how the cycle of domestic violence can be passed down through
generations.
] It’s also why psychologists came to the realization that spanking and other
forms of physical discipline are a bad idea. The intended goal might be
to create negative consequences for bad behavior, but physical discipline
actually serves to model and thereby reinforce aggression.
257
] Another factor that contributes to both stereotyping and aggression is

frustration. As described by frustration-aggression theory, people who are
frustrated in some way often act out aggressively.
] When we feel frustrated because we can’t achieve our intended goal, we

may displace this tension on whatever target is available. For instance, if a
parent has a bad day at work, they may come home and yell at their kids.
] Frustration isn’t the only factor. According to the cognitive-neoassociation

theory, any type of unpleasant condition, such as crowding or excess noise,
that causes negative feelings can lead to aggression. Heat is a clear example
that appears consistently in the literature: As the temperature increases, so
does the rate of aggression, including murder, rape, and assault.
] Here is an important question: Given the effects of climate change on

temperatures worldwide, should we expect the effects of global warming to
include higher rates of aggression? The answer is yes.
] Researchers in 2016 estimate that each 1° Celsius increase in average

temperature—a relatively modest prediction in terms of climate change—
will lead to a nearly 6% increase in rates of violent crime. That translates
to an estimated 25,000 more serious and deadly assaults each year in the
United States alone.
Positive Stereotypes,
Negative Consequences
] In some cases, overgeneralized beliefs actually attribute positive
characteristics, such as the idea that women are more nurturing.
Unfortunately, even these positive stereotypes can also lead to negative
consequences.
258
] First, they rely on the same cognitive shortcut of making

assumptions about someone based on their group
membership. That is why people who
overhear someone use a positive
stereotype about members of a
particular group also tend to
believe that person also holds
negative stereotypes about
members of that same group.
] Positive stereotypes can also be

used to justify systemic problems
in society. A stereotype that
women are more nurturing,
for example, can also
lead to a belief that
women are less suited
to serve as CEOs,
senators, police chiefs,
and so on.
] Positive stereotypes can also place intense and unwanted pressure on

individual members of particular groups. Frank Wu, an Asian-American
lawyer and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, put
it this way:
I am an Asian American, but I am not good with

computers. I cannot balance my checkbook, much
less perform calculus in my head. I would like to
fail in school, for no reason other than to cast off
my freakish alter ego of geek and nerd. … I yearn
to be an artist, an athlete, a rebel, and, above all,
an ordinary person.
259
Overcoming Stereotypes
] There is also good news about how we can overcome these tendencies.
One approach is to introduce people to counter-stereotypical examples,
which can help correct inaccurate assumptions. For instance, someone who
believes that women are too emotional to serve as leaders might shift their
perception after seeing a woman serve effectively as a governor, senator, or
president of the United States.
] But it’s not as simple as providing counter examples because we also tend
to find ways to disregard these examples and cling to our preexisting
beliefs. We move people who disconfirm our stereotypes into a special
subtype or category in our minds. This process of subtyping allows the
overall stereotype to remain unchanged.
] That leaves the question: What does work? First, increasing contact
between members of different groups can go a long way toward reducing
the reliance on stereotypes. As an example, a study published in 2020
demonstrated how increased contact with members of other racial groups
during medical school can help reduce doctors’ racial bias.
] Increasing contact between members of different groups is especially

effective at reducing stereotypes if people work together on the pursuit
of some type of shared goal. This shared focus brings people together
and probably increases the incentive to get to know group members as
individuals. The cross-race friendships of individuals on sports teams are
an example.
] Another strategy that helps reduce stereotypes is developing empathy—

that is, trying to see the world through another person’s eyes. College
students who are asked to write about a day in the life of an elderly man
from his perspective later show less negative stereotypical views about
aging. Increasing empathy also helps reduce aggression.
260
] One very simple study found that even a 10-minute conversation that
helps people develop empathy can reduce prejudice toward people who are
transgender, meaning a person who identifies their own sex as different
than the one assigned at birth. Researchers sent canvassers to knock on
the doors of people living in the Miami area and asked them to have a
10-minute conversation.
] Half of the people talked about being transgender; the other half talked
about recycling. But the canvassers didn’t just provide facts about what
being transgender meant, as in standard diversity training. Instead, they
used a technique known as deep canvassing.
] The canvassers asked people to think about their own personal experiences
with others judging them or showing prejudice and to then think about
how that experience relates to the experience of transgender people.
This type of active perspective-taking led to a substantial decrease in
transphobia, as measured by degree of positive feelings toward transgender
people, that lasted for at least three months.
] A final strategy that’s extremely effective at reducing stereotypes is having

a leader step forward and denounce the stereotypes. This approach
was used perhaps most famously in the 1940s, when the president and
general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, realized that
integrating Major League Baseball would be good for the game and the
moral thing to do.
] He was assured by a social scientist friend that a baseball team had many of
the essential elements that could make integration a success: close contact
among teammates, pursuit of a common goal, opportunity to develop
empathy, and support from management.
] Rickey therefore chose to sign Jackie Robinson, an All-Star in the Negro

League. Robinson became the first Black player in the 20th century to play
in Major League Baseball.
261
JACKIE ROBINSON
] Although Robinson faced racism throughout his career, he was named

Rookie of the Year at the end of his first season. Eventually, he was
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This one step was the start of the
integration of baseball—and American sports.
Reading
Eberhardt, Biased.
Steele, Whistling Vivaldi.
262
Altruism: Origins
and Opportunities
The term altruism in this lesson refers

to prosocial behavior designed to help
or benefit others. The motivation for
my behavior, as is the case in many
different types of altruism, can be
complex, and different theories in
social psychology explain this behavior
30
in different ways.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
263
Lesson 30 | Altruism: Origins and Opportunities
Theories on Altruism
] At one extreme is a theory that altruism is actually rooted in entirely
self-focused motives. According to the egoistic model, we help due to
anticipated future gain. For instance, we might help to reduce our own
sense of unease when seeing someone else in distress.
] A second view, which takes a broader view of self-centered motives, comes

from the evolutionary model of helping, where altruism is an instinctive
behavior that enhances survival.
Y We help those who share our genes because that lets our genes get
passed on. But this same theory also proposes that sometimes we show
altruism even to people who don’t share our genes.
Y For instance, if we help an unrelated person in need, that person may

later help us—or at least our relatives—if we are ever in need. Altruism
motivated by this belief that kindness will eventually be repaid is
known as reciprocal altruism.
] The third, and really most optimistic, view is known as the empathy-
altruism model. This view agrees that altruism can indeed be motivated
by self-focused, egoistic concerns, such as reducing our own distress. But it
also proposes that at least in some cases, altruism is instead motivated by a
genuine desire to do something good for someone else.
Y Altruism is motivated by real empathy for someone else when we truly

take the perspective of the person in need.
Y When we actually feel their pain, we will help them because we feel
compassion for them and want to reduce their distress—not our own.
264
] The three models described so far all explain helping as a relatively

straightforward process. A wrinkle comes from an fMRI study of
interacting brain regions published in 2016: Inducing empathy can
increase altruism in selfish people yet not in generous people.
] This surprising result continues in the other direction. Inducing self-

centered feelings of tit-for-tat reciprocity can increase altruism in people
already inclined to be generous yet have no effect on the altruism of selfish
people.
The Decision-Tree
Model of Helping
] The most famous model to explain when we help others also describes the
process as a far-from-straightforward process of five distinct steps. This
model, the decision-tree model of helping, proposes that providing help to
someone in an emergency requires making a series of decisions.
] First, we have to notice that something is happening. This seems

obvious, but in some situations, people may fail to pay attention to their
environment and therefore not be aware that an emergency is happening.
Y People often get used to blocking out external stimuli and staying
more self-focused, which can lead them to be less aware of a potential
emergency.
Y This tendency may be especially common for people living in big cities,
who are constantly surrounded by noise and potential distractions.
265
] Second, even if we do notice something, we have to interpret it as

something that requires help—that is, as an emergency. One challenge
here is that we often look to other people’s behavior to figure out what’s
going on. But if everyone is looking to everyone else to figure out what’s
happening, no one may actually step up and help.
] Third, even when people clearly recognize that an emergency is occurring,

they may fail to act unless they feel responsible for doing so. In group
settings, we experience a diffusion of responsibility. But even in large
groups, people do tend to step up and help if they know that other people
are watching their behavior.
] Even after we’ve identified something as an emergency and taken

responsibility for providing help, we need to decide to help. And according
to the fourth stage of the decision-tree model, this isn’t necessarily easy.
Y Because emergencies are rare and unusual events, people do not have
lots of experience in handling emergencies, and they may not have any
direct personal experience in how to cope.
Y Additionally, different situations call for different types of help, and we

may hesitate to help because we aren’t sure what the best option is.
Y Another complication is that most emergencies arise suddenly, so people

are not able to think through various options and develop plans of
action.
Y However, people with relevant skills and training do tend to step up and
help in an emergency, probably because they recognize the type of help
needed as well as their ability to provide it. They also don’t experience
diffusion of responsibility in a crowd.
266
] The fifth and final step in the decision-tree model of helping is actually
providing help in some way. This step typically closely follows the fourth
step, as once we’ve decided how to provide help, we’re pretty likely to
continue on with our intentions.
ORIGINS OF THE DECISION-TREE MODEL
The decision-tree model of helping was created following a

famous case that took place in New York City in 1964, when
a young woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered late
one night outside her apartment building. An article in The
New York Times described her death as resulting from the
callous behavior of her neighbors, who the article claimed
had seen the attack, yet failed to intervene or even call the
police.
The case prompted a flurry of research

in psychology on a phenomenon that
came to be known as the bystander
effect. Ironically, follow-up research
into this particular case published in
2007 revealed that this description
of what had taken place was not
exactly right. At least two people
did call the police and a friend came
to her aid and was with her when
she died.
267
Using the Model

] Although the decision-tree model proposes five steps, on a practical level,
a person who needs help can make great use of two of the steps. They may
be a crucial source of aid.
] First, someone in need should label the situation as an emergency so that

there’s no ambiguity about the situation. Second, they should label who
should help by identifying one person in the crowd, calling out to that
person directly, and giving that person specific instructions on what to do.
] Here is an example of what a person could call out while performing those
two steps: “Hey, I’ve hurt my ankle. I need you in the red shirt to call 911
right now.”
Reading
Bloom, Against Empathy.
Zaki, The War for Kindness.
268
Explaining
Personality
This lesson’s topic is personality.

We all categorize other people
and ourselves based on different
personality traits, and the subject
of personality is a favorite target for
pseudoscience. But for contemporary
personality psychologists, the
approach most widely accepted
31
is the trait perspective, which is
covered in this lesson along with other
approaches.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
269
Lesson 31 | Explaining Personality
The Trait Perspective

] The trait perspective approach focuses on describing people in terms
of their fundamental traits, meaning their relatively stable patterns
of thinking, feeling, and acting. For example, a distinction between
introversion and extraversion was highlighted in the 1920s by Carl Jung,
whose personality types soon morphed into the unreliable Meyers-Briggs
set of 16 types.
] That test has been debunked as scientifically invalid, overlapping, and

lacking predictive power. Instead, psychology uses a statistical technique
known as factor analysis to group thousands of everyday words describing
people’s traits into a much smaller number of basic units, or factors.
] Within trait theory, the most commonly used model created with factor
analysis is known as the five-factor model. This model was originally
proposed in the 1960s but then widely ignored until the 1980s, when
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa published a series of papers showing that
people’s traits grouped in consistent ways, were stable over time, and could
predict behavior.
] According to their five-factor model, people’s traits group into five basic
dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness,
and neuroticism. Moreover, this model says all people in the world can
be described in terms of their personality on where they fall on the five
fundamental traits.
Y People who are high on openness are willing to try new things and open
to different ideas and beliefs. Those who are low feel uncomfortable in
new situations and prefer familiar and predictable environments and
routines.
270
Y People who are high on conscientiousness are hardworking, well-

organized, and punctual. Those who are low are less focused on being
tidy and punctual, and they are more likely to engage in impulsive
behavior.
Y People who are extraverted are outgoing, socially confident, and eager
to meet new people. Those who are low on this dimension are quiet and
prefer spending time in smaller social groups.
Y People who are agreeable are friendly, likeable, and altruistic. Those
who are low are less concerned with pleasing people, more suspicious of
other people’s motives, and more focused on their own self-interest.
Y People who are high on neuroticism are anxious, fearful, and tend to
focus on negative aspects of most situations. Those who are low remain
calm during times of stress and are less likely to worry about and dwell
on problems they are facing.
] Each of these traits is measured on a continuum in which some people fall at

extreme ends but most fall somewhere in between. Even more importantly,
these traits are also fairly good at predicting behavior. For instance, students
who are high on conscientiousness tend to get higher grades.
271
] Emotional intelligence is positively correlated with openness to

experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness as well as
low neuroticism. Research has also shown that these traits predict subtle
differences in daily life, such as how much a person spends on gifts at the
holidays.
Drawbacks and Critiques

] Though the five-factor model has numerous strengths, it’s also important
to acknowledge a couple of critiques. One issue is called the person-
situation controversy. It’s certainly clear that our personality traits may
influence our behavior. But it’s also clear that the situation we are in may
have an even stronger effect.
] A related concern is over what it means to say personality traits are

“relatively” stable over time. How much do traits actually change? For
example, to what extent do traits change as people grow and mature?
] One recent longitudinal study found that people tend to increase in

empathy with age. Empathy is not one of the five-factor model’s core
traits, but empathy is positively correlated with agreeableness. And other
longitudinal research suggests that agreeableness itself tends to increase
across the lifespan.
] An additional—and deliberate—omission from the five-factor model’s

description of personality is the role of unconscious factors in personality.
The five-factor trait theory focuses on personality as a function of
behavioral traits we can observe. This placed it in opposition to the
earliest, most controversial theory of personality, as developed by
Sigmund Freud, which described personality as rooted largely in the
unconscious.
272
Freud’s Theory
] According to Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective, personality is made up of
three different levels of consciousness or awareness. The smallest portion of
personality is our conscious, which is what we are actively aware of and can
think about. Second, just below the level of awareness, is our preconscious,
which refers to thoughts, motives, and memories that we can pretty easily
bring into conscious awareness.
] According to Freud, the third and most important part of personality is the
unconscious, which consists of thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories of
which we are largely unaware. In Freud’s view, we actively work to repress
or block unacceptable thoughts or wishes from our conscious.
] Freud thought these

unconscious wishes
are too painful to
acknowledge, but that
despite our best efforts,
these unconscious
wishes leak out in our
dreams, our physical
symptoms, and in
many aspects of daily
life. This is why the
term Freudian slip
describes a small slip
of the tongue that
is thought to reflect
powerful unconscious
feelings that we
normally keep hidden.
SIGMUND FREUD
273
] Freud’s theory of personality rests almost entirely on his assumption that

we repress painful experiences and desires—that we banish them into our
unconsciousness because they are too painful to acknowledge. However,
repression is actually a fairly rare mental response to trauma.
] In addition to proposing that personality operates on three distinct levels

of consciousness, Freud also believed that personality was composed of
three distinct mental structures:
1 A completely unconscious id, a part of personality that is entirely

focused on satisfying so-called pleasure-principle drives, such as hunger,
thirst, sex, and aggression.
2 The ego, largely conscious and operating on the reality principle.
3 The superego, which focuses on internalized ideals and standards for

judgment and operates on the morality principle.
274
] In many cases, the ego can’t find a way to balance out the needs of the id
and superego, which leads to considerable anxiety. According to Freud, the
ego then uses a variety of different strategies to try to reduce or redirect
that anxiety in some way.
] These strategies, known as defense mechanisms, all have the same goal:
to banish anxiety-provoking thoughts, feelings, and memories from
consciousness. They operate entirely at an unconscious level.
] Many parts of Freud’s theory have failed to be supported by empirical

research. However, there is widespread agreement that people do like to
feel good about themselves, and blocking threatening feelings may be an
effective strategy for feeling somewhat better.
The Humanist Perspective

] The third approach to personality, the humanist perspective, emerged
in the 1950s and 1960s. It was largely a reaction to concerns about two
aspects of the then-prevailing psychoanalytic perspective: its focus on
negative emotions, such as anxiety, and people’s lack of agency over their
outcomes.
] According to the humanistic perspective, our personality is formed based

on how we perceive and interpret the world. Humanists believe that all
people are born with an inborn drive to become self-actualized, meaning to
develop all of our talents and capabilities and to realize our full potential.
] One humanist theorist, Carl Rogers, viewed our self-concept, meaning

how we see ourselves, as the most important component of personality.
This self-concept develops based on life experiences, including interactions
with other people.
275
] Another humanist theorist, Abraham Maslow, is probably best known for

developing a hierarchy of needs. He believed that personality development
occurs as a natural progression from lower level to higher level needs.
Our ultimate goal is to achieve self-actualization, meaning finding self-
fulfillment and realizing one’s potential.
] Humanistic theories were very popular in psychology in the 1960s and

1970s, in part because they focused on the potential for good in all of us.
But these theories have somewhat fallen out of favor by researchers since
the 1980s, largely due to some fundamental problems with their approach.
276
] First, this approach is often viewed as somewhat naïve in their assumptions

about humans’ inherent drive to achieve positive goals. Second, humanist
models tend to ignore the role of cultural context.
CHANGING PERSONALITY
A popular question about personality is this: Can personality

change? The answer from a 2019 paper by an international
team of researchers is yes. But it’s not easy. They found that
personality traits are indeed largely stable, but both major
life events and deliberate effort can lead to change. Change
is more possible during particular life periods, such as young
adulthood, and if people are truly motivated to make such
changes.
The Social-Cognitive Approach

] The fourth and final approach to personality combines both an emphasis
on individual differences between people and the contextual situation in
which they are in. This approach is formally called the social-cognitive
approach but is often referred to as the person-situation debate.
] According to Albert Bandura, a professor at Stanford University, a major

influence on personality is the experience we have in the world. As
illustrated in his famous Bobo doll study, in which children imitated an
adult’s aggressive behavior, he believed that personality is formed in part
based on observations about their environment.
277
] He also believed that these internal personal factors, such as those

highlighted by trait theory, interact with the environment in distinct ways.
Bandura referred to this interaction between a person’s distinct preferences
and their experiences as reciprocal determinism.
] One of the most influential figures within the social-cognitive perspective

is Walter Mischel. He created a famous study on children known as the
marshmallow test, which looked at children’s individual differences in
delay of gratification—in this case, how long they chose to wait to eat
a marshmallow. They could eat one marshmallow quickly or wait 15
minutes, at which point they would earn a second marshmallow to eat.
The study had two important findings.
1 The children showed a tremendous range of behavior, with some

delaying gratification and other seeking it instantly.
2 The researchers followed up with the children over time and discovered
that those who delayed eating the marshmallow differ from those
who didn’t in a number of important ways: They have higher SAT
scores, lower levels of substance abuse and obesity, greater social skills,
and so on.
] Mischel believed that the children

in that study each interpreted the
relative costs and benefits of delaying
gratification in their own way. This
approach stresses not just the role of the
person, like trait theory, or the situation,
like social psychologists do. Rather, there’s
interaction in how each person’s particular
traits lead them to think about a particular
situation differently and to then act accordingly.
278
Critiques of the
Marshmallow Test
] More recent research calls into question the results of Mischel’s original
marshmallow study. Recent attempts to repeat the marshmallow study
have found somewhat weak results, essentially showing that kids’ ability
to delay eating the marshmallow is not such a stronger predictor of good
future outcomes found in the original study.
] One possibility is that many more kids now attend preschool, where
skills in delaying gratification are deliberately taught. Research finds that
children tested in the 2000s wait on average one minute longer before
eating the marshmallow than those tested in the 1980s.
] This finding means that something assumed to be a relatively stable trait of

personality is instead something that can be taught. In fact, another point
of controversy about this famous study is whether the marshmallow test
reflects cognitive abilities, such as self-control, which can be taught, rather
than innate and relatively stable differences in personality traits.
] Another new insight has been whether and to what extent the
marshmallow test reflects social factors, such as how much trust a person
places in other people. To test this possibility, researchers in a 2013 study
conducted at the University of Rochester divided the kids into two groups.
] Kids in both groups were given a set of bad art supplies and were told that
if they waited, they would get better materials in a few minutes. A few
minutes later, the kids in one group were given, as promised, the better
art materials. The kids in the other group, however, were told that the
researcher had made a mistake, and there weren’t any better supplies.
279
] Next, kids in both groups were given a single sticker and told that if they
waited and didn’t use it, they would get better stickers. Once again, kids
in one group received the better stickers as promised, and the experimenter
returned emptyhanded for the kids in the other group. In short, the
researchers were training the kids to either trust or not trust the adult
making promises.
] Finally, kids in both groups were put through the standard marshmallow
test. Kids who had learned that the researcher was not trustworthy waited
on average for only about three minutes before eating the marshmallow.
But kids who had learned the researcher had previously delivered on
promises waited on average for 12 minutes.
] Therefore, kids’ ability to wait may reflect their prior experiences with
adults and whether they’ve learned to trust—or doubt—what they’re
promised. These findings all suggest that behaviors assumed to be aspects
of a person’s stable personality are instead far more changeable, depending
on particular situations and experiences.
Reading
Kaufman, Transcend.
Mischel, The Marshmallow Test.
280
Demystifying
Psychological
Disorders
More than 50% of all Americans will

be diagnosed with a mental illness at
some point in their lives, including 20%
in a given year. This topic is therefore
of great personal relevance for
understanding our friends, our family
members, and even ourselves.
32
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
281
Lesson 32 | Demystifying Psychological Disorders
Traits of Psychological Disorders

] People with a psychological disorder show a pattern of behaviors, thoughts,
or emotions that are considered pathological, which means diseased or
disordered. Pathology is based on one or more of three reasons: deviance,
dysfunction, or distress.
] The term deviance refers to behaviors, thoughts, or emotions that deviate

from a society or culture’s norms, values, and laws. For instance, adults
who are sexually attracted to children are diagnosed as having the
psychological disorder known as pedophilia.
] Next, the term dysfunction refers to behaviors, thoughts, or emotions

that interfere with daily functioning. Finally, the term distress refers to
experiencing negative feelings, such as anxiety, loneliness, or confusion.
] The challenge in determining whether someone has a psychological

disorder is that people don’t fall neatly into categories of people with a
disorder and people without. Instead, many people fall on some type of a
continuum with mental health on one end and mental illness on the other.
The Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders
] A specific diagnosis is based on specific criteria. In the United States, the
relevant manual was created by the American Psychiatric Association and
is called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
First issued in 1952, this manual has received several major revisions.
282
] The version from 2013 describes symptoms for around 400 different
psychological disorders, which are grouped into 22 different categories.
These are sometimes classified even more broadly into five groups:
Y Neurodevelopmental disorders are brain disorders that begin at birth or

from early in life.
Y Neurocognitive disorders are those that affect the brain later in life,
including traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease.
Y Internalizing disorders include disorders such as anxiety or depression
Y Externalizing disorders include the manic phase of bipolar.
Y A miscellaneous group of other disorders includes those involving sleep,

eating, and addiction.
] The manual describes other aspects of each disorder, including the typical
age at which symptoms start occurring, which gender is more affected,
and common treatment approaches and how effective they are. Each
new edition of the DSM revises what was previously seen as cutting-
edge knowledge. This means that how we classify different psychological
disorders—and even what we consider a psychological disorder—actually
changes over time.
] There is considerable debate about conditions that some experts think

should be included in the manual. The 2013 version categorized gambling
disorder as an addictive disorder, the first official purely behavioral
addiction. But if gambling addiction is included, what about other forms
of behavioral addiction, such as sex addiction and internet addiction?
Some experts believe that those types of addiction should also have been
included, and they weren’t.
283
] The rest of the world has long used a different and broader system
managed by the World Health Organization. This system, the
International Classification of Diseases (ICD), has a much broader scope,
classifying medical diseases as well as psychological disorders from around
the world. It contains about 14,000 diagnoses. Beginning with the 2018
edition, known as ICD-11, efforts were made to harmonize how these two
systems classify psychological disorders.
Causes of Psychological
Disorders
] Different perspectives within the field of psychology differ in how
they explain psychological disorders, which in turn leads to different
types of treatment. The most widely accepted explanation is that most
psychological disorders are caused by some combination of biological,
psychological, and environmental factors.
] This means that some people will be at greater risk of developing any given
disorder due to their specific combination of all those factors. Disorders
also vary considerably in the extent to which their causes are more genetic
or more environmental.
Y One neurocognitive disorder that is often called post-concussion

syndrome is clearly caused by a factor within the environment: a
traumatic brain injury, or TBI.
Y In contrast, there is a strong genetic component to bipolar disorder,

a mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings
from intense highs to deep lows. Evidence suggests that several genes
contribute.
284
] The diathesis-stress model proposes that psychological disorders develop

from a predisposition to a given disorder based on biological, genetic,
cognitive, and/or personality factors. Disorders manifest themselves when
combined with stressful conditions.
Schizophrenia
] All of the aforementioned factors influence whether someone develops
schizophrenia, a group of severe psychotic disorders that influence
a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Common symptoms of
schizophrenia include disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed
perceptions such as hallucinations, and inappropriate emotions and
actions.
] People with schizophrenia may see or hear things that aren’t there and
often have delusions of persecution or grandeur. They have greater
difficulty functioning in daily life or maintaining social relationships,
given their loss of contact with reality.
] Genes definitely play a

role in schizophrenia. One
theory is that people with A BEAUTIFUL MIND
schizophrenia have an excessive
number of receptors for the One well-known illustration
neurotransmitter dopamine. of schizophrenia is seen
This high level of receptors may in the movie A Beautiful
intensify brain signals. Another Mind, a story about
theory points to the fact that mathematician and
some people with schizophrenia Nobel Prize–winner John
show structural differences in Nash, who developed
particular parts of the brain. schizophrenia at the
age of 30.
285
] A person’s risk of developing schizophrenia increases if they have a relative

with the disorder, but genes aren’t the whole story. As for environmental
and psychological factors that influence whether a person develops
schizophrenia, the list begins with possible prenatal factors, such as
maternal malnutrition, viral infections, or maternal stress. Factors may also
include stressful living environments.
Personality Disorders
] A psychotic disorder like schizophrenia is not very prevalent, but it leads to
serious impairments in virtually all aspects of life. In contrast, personality
disorders are among the most commonly diagnosed psychological
disorders. Estimates are that 10 to 13% of people worldwide have some
type of personality disorder.
] All personality disorders share a common link, which is showing consistent

patterns of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors that are seen as unusual,
inflexible, and distressing. But people with personality disorders don’t lose
touch with reality, so these disorders cause fewer impairments in work,
personal relationships, or daily life. This is one reason why most people
with these disorders do not recognize that they have a problem and hence
don’t seek treatment.
] One of the most frequently diagnosed personality disorders is borderline

personality disorder. This disorder is characterized by broad feelings of
instability: They are uncertain about their own self-image, experience
intense and unstable emotions, and have dysfunctional interpersonal
relationships. Dysfunctional methods for coping with negative feelings
might include impulsive and self-destructive behavior.
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] Another personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, describes

people who have an overly inflated view of themselves. People with this
disorder are extremely self-centered. Meanwhile, they are low in empathy
for others: They look to other people only to fulfill their own goals.
] People with antisocial personality disorder, which is the most common

of the personality disorders, exhibit a complete disregard for rules, social
norms, and the rights of others, including their own family members and
friends. People with this disorder also don’t seem to react to potentially
anxiety-provoking events in the same way as other people.
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
] Neurodevelopmental disorders get their name from the fact that they
involve brain dysfunction and tend to begin early in life. This set of
disorders includes intellectual disability as well as various types of
communication disorders.
] Two of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders are attention-

deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder
(ASD). Both appear to have a combination of genetic and environmental
causes.
] ADHD, as the name suggests, actually consists of a deficit of attention

and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Symptoms of inattention include being
unorganized, having difficulty paying attention, and being easily
distracted. Hyperactive or impulsive symptoms include difficulty sitting
still, rushing through tasks, and making rash decisions.
] Some people show both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity

symptoms. Historically in the field of psychology, ADHD was thought of
as something one grew out of with age and maturity. We now know that
this condition continues into adulthood, although the symptoms vary.
287
] Likewise, ASD is a lifelong developmental disorder. Autism’s symptoms are

typically seen early in life, often before age three, and continue throughout
the life span, although most people get better at being able to manage the
symptoms if they receive intensive treatment.
] There has been controversy about what counts as autism since the fifth
edition of the DSM in 2013 made a choice to combine four separate
autistic disorders into a single disorder (ASD). People who had previously
been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome—a disorder in which people
have trouble with social functioning—were now seen as having a form of
autism.
] Some people with Asperger’s didn’t think this shift made sense, in part
because autism is typically characterized by more severe symptoms than
seen with Asperger’s, including language delays and intellectual deficits.
A variety of high-functioning people have been diagnosed with Asperger’s
syndrome, including TIME magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year, climate
activist Greta Thunberg.
] However, experts in psychology and psychiatry felt that the severity of

symptoms differed but otherwise had enough overlap to combine these
two diagnoses into a single spectrum. Challenges generally involve
communication, motor skills, speech, and intellectual ability, but the
specific symptoms vary widely. Symptoms can range from mild to severe,
and different symptoms may be combined in different ways.
Dissociative Disorders
] This lesson concludes with a look at one of the least-understood
psychological disorders. Dissociative disorders involve some type of
disruption, or dissociation, of conscious awareness from memories,
thoughts, or feelings.
288
] When there is a selective and localized loss of memory, it’s known as

dissociative amnesia, which may be brought about by extreme stress or
trauma. For example, in one case, an 18-year-old male was rescued from
his sailboat by the Coast Guard and brought to the hospital.
] He knew he had gone sailing with friends and that he was a college
student, but he did not recall what happened to his friends. Moreover, he
kept forgetting that he was in a hospital. Later, aided by a drug that relaxed
him, he recalled that his friends had washed overboard and had drowned.
] As this case illustrates, amnesia can be selective: People seem to forget

intolerably painful experiences. Those with dissociative amnesia remember
who they are, but they are unable to recall any details about a particular
period of time. Typically, this type of amnesia begins and ends relatively
abruptly and is unlikely to reoccur.
] A more serious—but also more controversial—dissociative diagnosis

is dissociative identity disorder. This used to be known as multiple
personality disorder.
] However, skeptics note that this disorder is almost nonexistent outside

North America and that the rate of diagnosis for this disorder increases
shortly after it appears in various popular books and movies. Skeptics
therefore worry that therapists may look for evidence of multiple
personalities and thereby elicit them.
Reading
Kolker, Hidden Valley Road.
Silberman, Neurotribes.
289
The Epidemic
of Mood and
Anxiety Disorders
This lesson focuses on the two most
common types of psychological
disorders, both of which involve
extreme emotions: anxiety disorders,
which involve extreme worry and
fear, and mood disorders, which
involve extreme sadness. The lesson
describes the symptoms of these
33
disorders, their causes, and how we
treat them.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
290
Lesson 33 | The Epidemic of Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety Disorders Overview

] The broad term anxiety disorders refers to a set of psychological disorders
that involve distressing, persistent anxiety that doesn’t go away. It can even
get worse over time.
] We all feel anxious at times, which is normal. But people with an anxiety
disorder experience excessive and persistent feelings of nervousness, panic,
worry, and fear, which interferes with their overall quality of life.
] They may also show physical manifestations of intense anxiety, such as

difficulty sleeping, nausea, dizziness, rapid or irregular heartbeat, muscle
tightness, dry mouth, and sweaty or cold hands and feet. These symptoms
are essentially the body’s way of activating the resources necessary to
respond to a threat—the so-called fight-or-flight response—even if actual
fighting or fleeing from the stress isn’t possible.
] Estimates are that about 18% of American adults suffer from at least one
anxiety disorder. But anxiety disorders can take a number of different
forms, which vary in terms of the specific focus and root cause of the
anxiety.
Types of Anxiety Disorders

] People with generalized anxiety disorder have unfocused, out-of-control,
negative feelings. They are continually tense and jittery, worry excessively
about anything and everything, and experience symptoms of physiological
arousal (racing heart, clammy hands, nervous stomach, sleeplessness).
] The anxiety is free flowing, meaning that they can’t identify the source of
their anxiety. It may even manifest itself as a panic attack.
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] Another type of anxiety disorder, panic disorder, also involves intense and
free-flowing anxiety. But in this case, the anxiety isn’t constant but rather
is characterized by panic attacks that often seem to strike out of the blue,
with no clear cause.
] Panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder both involve diffuse types
of anxiety: The person can’t pinpoint what’s causing their anxiety. But
many other types of anxiety disorders are rooted in very specific fears.
] For example, people with social anxiety disorder have an irrational fear of
being watched or judged by others, which typically starts in childhood or
adolescence. This fear makes it very difficult for them to function in most
situations, including at work, school, and in social settings.
Phobias
] The most common type of anxiety disorder is a specific phobia. A phobia
is an irrational fear that disrupts behavior and focuses anxiety on some
specific object, activity, or situation. As estimated 10% of adults in the
United States have some type of phobia.
] Phobias are grouped into five distinct types of categories. First, there’s fear
of natural events, such as thunder, lightning, or tornadoes. Second, there’s
fear of general medical things, like going to the dentist.
] Third is fear of animals, most commonly dogs, snakes, or spiders. Fourth,

there’s fear of some specific situation, such as small spaces, driving, or
heights. Finally, there’s an “other” category, which includes things like loud
sounds, falling, and costumed characters such as clowns.
] When people are confronted by the specific phobic object or situation, they
experience extreme reactions, including nausea, trembling, rapid heart rate,
and even fear of dying.
292
] The good thing about many phobias is that they can often be avoided.
For instance, someone who is phobic about heights can avoid going to the
Grand Canyon. But other phobias can be virtually impossible to avoid.
One of the most debilitating phobias is agoraphobia, meaning the fear of
public places.
Causes of Anxiety Disorders

] There are three leading theories about what causes anxiety disorders. As is
the case with most psychological disorders, it’s likely that all three sets of
factors play a role.
] According to the biological perspective, anxiety disorders serve to protect

people from harm and therefore are evolutionarily adaptive. Although the
symptoms of these disorders can be debilitating, they probably on some
level protect people from potential threats—for instance, from dogs.
] According to the cognitive or learning perspective, anxiety disorders are

basically learned responses based on either direct or indirect experiences in
the world.
Y Many people who develop a dog phobia do so after having a negative

experience with a dog, such as being bitten by a dog during childhood.
This one bad experience with one dog then leads to feeling intense fear
whenever they see any dog.
Y Phobias can also develop through observations. Many children develop

phobias by watching how their parents react to particular situations.
Seeing an adult experience intense fear about something can lead a child
to develop the same fear.
293
] The third explanation for anxiety disorders is that they are created, or at
least influenced, by sociocultural factors. For example, some psychologists
believe the dramatic rise in anxiety disorders seen in the United States is
the result of increased social media use.
Mood Disorders
] Mood disorders are another prevalent psychological disorder. Mood
disorders all include the presence of sad, empty, or irritable moods,
typically accompanied by physical and cognitive symptoms. For people
with a mood disorder, these feelings persist over time and are severe
enough to impact daily life functioning.
] The most serious mood disorder is major depressive disorder. People with
this disorder are known as clinically depressed, meaning they show a loss
of interest in normal activities and depressed mood.
] Most people at least occasionally experience some feelings of depression,

which can include feeling deeply discouraged about the future, dissatisfied
with one’s life, and isolated from others. But people who are clinically
depressed also experience significant difficulty in going about daily life
routines, such as going to work or school, showering, and so on.
] Another type of mood disorder, bipolar disorder, is also characterized

by periods of a depressed or sad mood and a loss of interest in previously
enjoyed activities. But in the case of bipolar disorder, people alternate
between these depressive episodes and episodes of mania, in which they
experience abnormally elevated moods as well as increased activity and
energy.
294
] Both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder are disorders that
persist over time, and they typically don’t have a clear cause or trigger.
Other types of mood disorders may include many of the same symptoms
involving mood disturbance but are categorized differently to highlight a
known cause.
] For example, people with seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, feel perfectly
fine during most of the year, but develop symptoms of depression,
sleepiness, and weight gain during the winter months. This disorder is
officially known as major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern.
] Another mood disorder is postpartum depression. Many women experience

hormonal shifts during pregnancy or after the birth of a child that can
lead to mood changes, anxiety, and irritability. But for some women, these
feelings are more severe and long-lasting.
� Women who develop

postpartum depression
experience highly disruptive
symptoms, including severe
mood swings, feeling
inadequate or worthless,
difficulty bonding with the
baby, intense sadness, and
anxiety and panic attacks.
They may also have
thoughts of hurting
themselves and/or
the baby.
295
Explaining Mood Disorders

] Depression is fairly widespread and is often triggered by some type of
stressful event. It’s also about twice as common in women than in men.
There are many potential factors that may contribute, include biological
factors, medical conditions, and environmental triggers.
] One leading theory is that depression is caused by, or at least influenced

by, the amount of various neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation.
Certain neurotransmitters play an important role in mood regulation, and
people with mood disorders often have levels either too high or too low of
these neurochemicals. Pharmacological approaches to treating depression
therefore are often focused on altering the levels of these chemicals in
the brain.
] Additional support for this theory comes from research showing that
mood disorders often run in families. For example, having a parent and
grandparent with depression doubles the risk of depression.
296
] Although genetics are a major risk factor, environmental factors may

influence exactly whether and how these genes are expressed. For
example, in people who have genetic predisposition to developing a mood
disorder, experiencing some type of stressful life event may trigger clinical
depression.
] Another explanation for the development of mood disorders is the

psychological, or social-cognitive, perspective. This theory posits that
depression results from how people think about the negative and stressful
events they experience. Some people seem find a way to frame negative
events in a positive way and essentially move on. Other people get stuck in
a vicious cycle of negativity.
] When bad things happen, they ruminate and obsess about the bad
things, blame themselves, and expect other bad things will happen in the
future. This, not surprisingly, leads them to develop feelings of sadness,
helplessness, and low self-esteem. It can also lead to self-destructive
behavior. Overall, it becomes very hard for people to pull themselves out of
this negative cycle.
] The negative cycle of depression can sound discouraging. However, it

also points to a strategy that can be used to treat depression: by changing
negative thoughts and thus disrupting the cycle. This is precisely the
approach used by cognitive behavioral therapy.
Suicide Prevention Strategies

] There are some practical strategies you can use if you, or someone you
know, is having thoughts about injuring themselves. First, don’t ignore
the warning signs. Pay attention if someone you know starts showing
symptoms of depression.
297
] If you are worried about someone’s mental health, you can ask them a
direct question, such as, “Are you thinking of hurting yourself?” If this is
person is experiencing deep depression, they may need a direct opportunity
to express how they are feeling. Your question may also help them feel
less alone.
] Provide support and find professional help. If someone you are close to is at
risk of harming themselves, let them know you care about them. Listen to
what they are saying, show empathy, and express your concern.
] Encourage the person to seek immediate professional help by calling a

therapist, going to a local emergency room, or calling a suicide hotline.
SUICIDE HOTLINE
The hotline 1-800-SUICIDE is available 24 hours a day,

seven days a week and is staffed by trained counselors who
specialize in suicide prevention.
] Prevent access to lethal means. Half of all suicides in the United States are
carried out by guns. It’s therefore essential to make sure that someone who
is thinking about harming themselves doesn’t have access to a gun. If you
own a gun, take it out of your house and let someone else store it.
Reading
Jamison, An Unquiet Mind.
Solomon, The Noonday Demon.
298
Understanding
and Overcoming
Addiction
Addiction is a broad term describing
any condition in which a person feels
compelled to engage in almost any
type of repeatable and pleasurable
activity when that activity results in
harmful consequences. Addiction to
drugs and alcohol has been the focus
of most of the theories and research
in psychology, so those types of
addiction are the focus of this lesson.
However, it’s important to keep in
34
mind that we can develop an addiction
to many different kinds of behavior,
including exercise, gambling, and
social media.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
299
Lesson 34 | Understanding and Overcoming Addiction
Substance Abuse
] Many of us use some type of drug on a regular basis. For instance, a
person might drink coffee to stay alert in the morning, enjoy a glass of
wine with dinner, or take over-the-counter pain medication to manage
a headache. But in some cases, drug use can cross over and become drug
abuse, meaning drug taking that leads to emotional or physical harm to
the person who uses the drugs and/or to those around the user.
] The American Psychiatric Association classifies people as having substance

use disorder based on whether people experience particular symptoms
within the last year. There are 11 relevant symptoms:
1 Experiencing cravings and urges to use the substance.
2 Using the substance in larger and larger amounts, or for a longer time,
than the person wants.
3 Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not being able
to do so.
4 Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the

substance.
5 Not being able to do what a person is supposed to be doing at work,

home, or school because of substance use.
6 Continuing to use the substance, even when it’s causing problems in

one’s relationships.
7 Giving up important social, professional, or recreational activities due

to substance use.
300
8 Using the substance repeatedly, even when doing so puts the user in
danger.
9 Continuing to use, even when the user knows they have a physical or
psychological problem that could be caused by or made worse by using
the substance.
10 Developing a tolerance to the substance, meaning the user needs more

and more of it to get the desired effect.
11 Developing unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the user tries to cut

back, which leads to continued use.
] Substance abuse disorder ranges in severity based on how many of these

symptoms someone is experiencing. People who show two or three
symptoms have a mild disorder, those with four or five have a moderate
disorder, and those who show six or more of the 11 symptoms have a severe
disorder.
] Although the severity of an addiction can vary, addiction always involves

both psychological and physical dependence. Psychological dependence on
a particular drug or activity means a mental desire or craving to achieve
the effects of using that drug or engaging in that activity.
] Physical dependence refers to changes in the body’s normal processes that

make using the drug necessary to maintain normal daily functioning. This
physical dependence is what leads to withdrawal symptoms whenever an
addict tries to stop or reduce their use. Someone who is addicted to coffee,
for example, may develop an intense headache if they reduce their caffeine
consumption.
301
Addiction in the Brain

] Virtually all drugs that cause addiction stimulate a reward center part
of the brain, the basal ganglia. This leads to a release of dopamine, a
neurotransmitter, which leads to intense feelings of pleasure.
] Under normal conditions, dopamine is released as a way of reinforcing

essential everyday behaviors, like when we eat to satisfy hunger. But drug use
artificially and more intensely creates this rewarding sensation, leading the
person to want to take more and more of the drug to get that same feeling.
] Long-term drug use also leads the brain to compensate for all the extra
dopamine that is constantly in the system: The brain reduces the number
of dopamine receptors. Fewer dopamine receptors, in turn, can escalate
drug use and a state known as anhedonia, meaning a loss of pleasure in
activities that were once enjoyed. That can also push people toward more
drug use in an attempt to feel pleasure.
] Brain imaging studies also show addiction leads to changes in parts of

the brain involved in judgment, decision-making, learning, memory,
and behavior, such as more impulsive behavior. All of these neurological
changes caused by repeated substance abuse help explain why drug
addiction creates a vicious cycle that it’s really hard to pull out of.
Theories on Addiction
] What leads someone to become addicted? Different theories answer this
question in different ways. The moral model theory places blame for
addictive behavior on people’s lack of impulse control or willpower. On
one hand, this model can be seen as blaming the victim, but it can also
be seen as empowering if the message tells people they have the power to
choose whether or not to use drugs.
302
] A contrasting theory of addiction is the disease model. This model

describes addiction as based in one’s biology and probably as determined
by genes. Then, there’s social learning theory, which says people learn to
engage in substance abuse just like they learn to engage in all other types
of behavior: by watching and modeling people around them.
] The leading theory explaining addiction is probably a combination of

multiple factors. Genetics clearly seems to play some role. For instance,
some people seem to become more easily addicted to nicotine than others,
perhaps because the effects of nicotine feel more pleasant to some people
than others.
] But genetic factors alone don’t explain addiction. After all, some people
with a genetic predisposition to alcohol use don’t develop alcoholism. This
means that psychological, social, and/or cultural factors also contribute to
addiction.
Treating Addiction: Early Steps

] All forms of substance abuse are linked with premature death, whether
from overdoses, car accidents, cancer, or cardiovascular disease. Moreover,
stopping any kind of addiction involves a similar process.
] Research comparing relapse curves—meaning the timing of people’s

return to substance abuse after making an attempt to quit this behavior—
is virtually identical for alcohol use, smoking, and heroin. Most relapses
occur within the first 90 days.
] This one of the reasons why the diagnostic criteria for substance abuse
disorder do not distinguish between addictions. It’s also why treating any
kind of addiction involves roughly the same steps.
303
] The very first step in treating people

with addiction is detoxification—a
process in which the person completely
withdraws from whatever drug
they are abusing. This process
can take about a month and
can cause severe symptoms,
including intense anxiety, tremors,
and hallucinations. Typically,
detoxification takes place in a
hospital or rehabilitation center so that
medication can be given to help ease
the symptoms of withdrawal.
Treating Addiction: Later Steps

] After the initial period in which the focus is on helping the person reduce
their physical dependence on the drug, additional help is needed to
maintain this new behavior. Help can come from a number of different
approaches, and the specific treatment approach must be tailored to the
person’s particular drug use patterns and resulting problems.
] Pharmacological approaches to treating addiction are designed to help

reduce symptoms of withdrawal that can push people toward returning
to drug use. Many people who are trying to quit smoking take some form
of nicotine replacement therapy, such as gum or patches. Similarly, the
symptoms of both alcohol and opioid withdrawal can be reduced with the
help of medications.
] Another commonly used approach to treating addiction is aversive

conditioning. This technique tries to create a negative association between
an unpleasant state, such as electric shocks, and an unwanted behavior,
such as drinking alcohol.
304
] This approach might work, especially in the short term. However, aversion
strategies also have their limits.
Y For example, one commonly used aversion-based strategy to treat people

with alcohol use disorder works by giving people the drug Antabuse.
Y This interferes with the breakdown of alcohol in the body and therefore
leads to unpleasant physical reactions. But people quickly learn that
they can avoid these side effects by simply not taking the Antabuse.
] The most commonly used—and typically most effective—method of

managing addiction is the cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, approach.
This strategy includes two distinct components.
Y First, people need to become aware of why they use a particular drug—
that is, the factors or situations that lead them to want to use the drug,
which can in turn let the person avoid them.
Y However, it’s impossible to avoid all situations that prompt substance

abuse. Therefore, the second component of this approach is response
substitution, meaning finding some other way to cope with situations
that trigger an urge to use a particular drug.
] Other approaches commonly used to treat addiction include providing

some type of incentive for abstaining from drug use. This method, known
as contingency management, is an operant conditioning technique in
which people are literally given positive reinforcement for staying clean,
typically confirmed via a drug test.
] Another strategy for helping people stick with a decision to abstain from
substance abuse is motivational interviewing. This technique involves
structured conversations between the person and the therapist.
305
] Here, the goal is to help the person find their own internal motivation for
stopping their drug abuse, and to give them an opportunity to express their
commitment to do so out loud. This technique has been shown to help
people actually follow through on their intentions.
] All of these approaches to behavior change can be particularly effective when

they are combined with some type of drug therapy to help people manage
the very real physiological cravings they experience during withdrawal.
This can include nicotine gum or patches for smokers. Methadone or
buprenorphine are examples for people with opiate addiction.
] It’s also important to recognize that different approaches may work best for
certain people or during certain times of the recovery process. Contingent
management approaches, for example, are designed basically to get people
through the initial days of quitting. After people have managed these
initial few days or weeks, they may need to focus instead on cognitive-
behavioral strategies, mindfulness, or a 12-step program for managing
pressure to return to using.
306
Self-Help Groups
] Many substance abuse treatment programs encourage people to participate
in some type of self-help group, both during initial treatment longer term
after other treatment has ended. In the early days of quitting a behavior,
people are often encouraged to attend daily meetings.
] These groups can also provide ongoing social support that is really helpful
in maintaining long-term changes in behavior. The most common and
well-known is Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA.
] What’s so beneficial about participating in a self-help group? First, social

interaction provides occasions for normative social influence, as group
members provide emotional support and help people feel less isolated
and alone.
] Second, there’s informational social influence, as group members also get

what they’re going through and can provide practical tips on sticking with
the desired behavior change. And third, social loafing is avoided with all
the features described by the collective effort model (discussed in lesson
28). Take these traits, for example:
Y Participants have sponsors who help them develop feelings of day-by-

day competence.
Y There’s a strong sense of identification with the group mission.
Y Caring about the outcome is

heightened by the motivational
sharing of personal stories. Reading
Linden, The Compass
of Pleasure.
Sheff, Beautiful Boy.
307
Ways Therapy
Works
There are many different approaches

to psychotherapy. By one count
that includes many minor variations,
there are several hundred forms of
psychotherapy, representing a variety
of views about the factors causing
abnormal thoughts and behavior.
Depending on the approach to therapy,
the goals and methods of treatment
35
are also likely to differ.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
308
Lesson 35 | Ways Therapy Works
Psychoanalysis
] Sigmund Freud pioneered the oldest type of therapy, psychoanalysis, in
the late 1890s. This controversial and largely superseded therapy is based
on the assumption that psychological problems are rooted in the repressed
impulses and conflicts of childhood.
] The goal of therapy is therefore to try to understand the unconscious and

repressed motivations that are causing problematic thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors so that the person can deal with them directly. And because the
problems are assumed to be unconscious, the therapist uses techniques
such as free association and dream interpretation as ways to access
otherwise repressed and unconscious wishes.
] Although traditional psychoanalysis declined within psychology beginning

in the late 1950s, some aspects of psychoanalysis have remained in use
by therapists trained in other approaches. Psychoanalysis was highly
influential in moving therapy from asylums and mental hospitals toward
office visits and in pioneering what psychologists describe as talk therapy.
There is also widespread agreement that childhood experiences can have
lasting effects.
] However, one concern about psychoanalysis is that traditional

psychoanalysis is thought to require several years of therapy, typically
involving several sessions a week. This is very time-consuming and
expensive. So-called psychodynamic therapy is an offshoot that is typically
shorter. Moreover, the main objection to psychoanalysis is that it is very
difficult to test empirically.
309
Behaviorism
] An alternative approach to therapy known as behaviorism emerged in the
early 1900s in part due to concerns about the inability of psychoanalytic
theory to make predictions that could be tested experimentally. Behavior
therapy is much more straightforward in its approach.
] It is based in the assumption that problematic behaviors are learned, in the

same way we learn any other behavior. Changing behavior is therefore not
about understanding the root causes of present-day problems but rather
just replacing maladaptive behaviors (and associated thoughts) with more
constructive behaviors.
] This method relies on using techniques based on well-established

principles of behavioral learning. For instance, the technique known
as counterconditioning involves associating problematic feelings and
behaviors with something counter to what one would expect.
] The most common technique for creating a new association is known

as systematic desensitization. For instance, the patient might begin by
creating a fear hierarchy, listing out a series of different steps that gradually
increase in the degree of fear they cause. If the patient has a fear of snakes,
the first step on the list might be seeing a picture of a snake, then being
in a room with a snake in a cage across the room,
then actually being next to that cage, and
finally, being able to touch the snake.
] Next, the therapist trains the

patient in progressive muscle
relaxation, building to a
state of deep relaxation. The
therapist then asks the patient
to imagine the first step on the
fear hierarchy.
310
] If the patient feels any anxiety, the patient returns to the state of deep
relaxation. Over time, the patient works up the steps in the fear hierarchy,
so that eventually the patient is able to pair even the most intense version
of the previously feared object with a new feeling of relaxation instead of
anxiety.
] Systematic desensitization is a slow and gradual approach to creating a new

association. But counterconditioning can also be more abrupt. A more
risky but more direct approach to creating a new association is known as
flooding. This technique is very fast, but it can also be traumatizing, as it
involves forcing the person to face the feared stimulus.
] Other behavior therapy techniques are rooted in the rewards and

punishments of operant conditioning. For example, autistic children who
are socially withdrawn may be given certain rewards, such as a special
snack or small toy, for engaging in prosocial behaviors.
] Behavior therapy approaches can be quite effective at changing people’s

behavior in desired ways. But there are also some concerns about this
approach to treating problems. One concern is what happens when the
reinforcement ends. A broader concern is that behavior therapy’s focus on
just treating a specific behavior may leave an underlying cause of the fear
or behavior to show up in some other way.
Humanistic Psychology
] Humanistic psychology emerged during the 1940s as a reaction to the
dominance of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Rather than emphasizing
dysfunction rooted in childhood or behavioral conditioning, the
humanistic approach focuses on each person’s ability to fulfil their
potential and maximize well-being. The therapist’s goal is therefore to
help people feel better about themselves, learn new things, and experience
psychological growth.
311
] One of the most famous humanistic approaches to therapy was developed

by Carl Rogers, a clinical psychology professor at the University of
Chicago. This approach, which came to be known as client-centered
or person-centered therapy, pioneered a relationship of greater equality
between the therapist and a client.
] Here, the belief is that problems arise when a person’s normal growth and
development are blocked, leading them to develop a poor self-concept. The
therapist’s role is therefore to show unconditional positive regard to the
client so that they can reach their full potential.
] Another well-known humanistic approach is Gestalt therapy, which helps

clients focus on what’s happening in their lives right now. Therapists
may help clients let go of past negative events and to learn how their own
negative thoughts and behaviors can contribute to their own unhappiness.
This self-awareness can empower clients to overcome lingering issues that
block them from experiencing well-being.
] To cultivate greater self-acceptance, the therapist uses active listening

techniques, such as repeating and clarifying what the client is expressing
and acknowledging what they are feeling. The focus is on the conscious
present and future—not the past or the unconscious.
Cognitive Therapy
] Yet another reaction against psychoanalysis emerged in the 1950s, when
Albert Ellis developed what is widely considered to be the first form of
cognitive therapy. His rational-emotive therapy involved vigorously and
critically challenging people’s illogical and self-defeating assumptions and
attitudes.
312
] A few years later, a specific type of cognitive therapy was developed to

focus on treating depression. According to its creator, psychologist Aaron
Beck, depression is rooted in people’s overwhelmingly negative beliefs
about themselves and their future. The goal of his model of therapy is
to help depressed people eliminate their irrationally pessimistic thought
patterns so they can see the world in a more optimistic and realistic way.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

] Beginning in the 1970s, the corrective approaches of both cognitive
therapy and behavioral therapy were formally combined to create cognitive
behavioral therapy, or CBT. This approach views psychological disorders
as rooted in maladaptive thoughts and feelings, which lead to problematic
behaviors. The therapist focuses on changing the underlying thoughts and
feelings that lead to distress as well as modifying the problematic behaviors
that result from these beliefs.
] For example, a person with an eating disorder may believe that eating any
food with butter or oil will lead them to become fat, and so they severely
restrict their food intake. A cognitive behavioral approach to therapy
would work to help them understand that avoiding all fat is an illogical
goal and work toward helping the person feel comfortable eating more
normally.
] CBT is now considered the gold standard for the treatment of many or
even most psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, phobias,
and addiction. For example, the American Psychological Association lists
CBT as the only treatment with “strong research support” for nearly 80%
of all psychological disorders.
313
] The combining of more than one approach exemplified by CBT represents

how many counselors and therapists treat psychological disorders. It’s
common for therapists to use what is called an integrative or eclectic
approach, which involves blending elements from different models of
therapy and using the approach(es) that best fit the clients’ needs.
Group Settings
] Individual therapy is the most familiar approach, but therapy can also be
done in a group setting, with one therapist leading a group of people who
share a common problem or issue. This form of therapy doesn’t involve as
much individual attention, but it can provide many of the same benefits:
insight into the issues that are causing the problem, new ways of thinking
about the problem, and so on.
] It’s also less expensive, which means more people may be able to benefit.
Plus, the social context provided by group therapy makes it possible to
benefit from other people’s experiences, learn that other people have
similar problems, and not feel alone with their particular problem.
] One specific type of group therapy, family therapy,

focuses on improving the overall dynamics between
members of a family. This approach
is based in the assumption
that one person’s problematic
behavior may be influenced
by or even directed at other
family members. Effective
therapy, according to this
approach, needs to focus on
the entire family system, not
just a particular person.
314
The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

] To evaluate the efficacy of therapy, many clinical trials compare two
different types of therapy. For example, the most commonly used
approach for treating couples experiencing marital problems has been
traditional behavioral couple therapy, or TBCT, which encourages couples
to engage in more positive behavior with each other and teaches them
communication and problem-solving strategies.
] But in the 1990s, a newer form of couples therapy known as integrative

behavioral couple therapy, or IBCT, was developed. This model includes
a deliberate focus on helping people accept their partner’s problematic
behavior, in part by changing their own emotional reaction to their
partner. Randomized clinical trials revealed that acceptance through
changing their own reaction was in fact better than the traditional
approach at increasing relationship satisfaction and preventing divorce.
315
] Randomized studies evaluating the overall effectiveness of therapy show

that generally, the average client who receives therapy ends up feeling
better than about 80% of those who don’t. In other words, therapy doesn’t
help everyone, but it helps many people.
] Therapy is especially beneficial for people who have relatively clear-cut

problems, such as phobias, compulsions, and depression. On the other
hand, it tends to be harder for therapy to successfully treat more chronic
and debilitating problems, such as schizophrenia or personality disorders.
] Some people therefore pursue various alternatives to so-called talk therapy:

the use of drugs as well as a couple of noninvasive medical procedures to
treat psychological disorders. And for many people, drug therapy may be
especially useful if combined with traditional forms of psychotherapy.
Reading
Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.
Pipher, Letters to a Young Therapist.
316
Mindset, Health,
and General
Well-Being
Our perceptions influence how we
see and experience the world as
well as how we respond in virtually
all situations, for better or for
worse. How we select and perceive
information is influenced by the
types of mental frames or lens we
hold about ourselves and the world.
36
These mindsets frame the perceptions
we receive, and they also, in turn,
influence our thoughts, feelings, and
behavior.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
317
Lesson 36 | Mindset, Health, and General Well-Being
Mindset and Aging

] In some cases, the power of mindset can have lasting effects. Take, for
example, the negative stereotypes about aging, which are so prevalent in
the United States.
] Researchers in one study used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal

Study of Aging, which measured participants’ attitudes about aging. The
study then measured the same people, with a wide variety of starting ages,
for nearly 40 years, which allows them to examine how change occurs
over time.
] Then, 38 years after the initial surveys, the researchers assessed these same
people’s memory using standard tests. The researchers then compared
scores on this memory test to those taken when the participants first
enrolled in the study decades earlier.
] Their findings were remarkable: People with the most negative stereotypes
about aging also showed the most decline in cognitive performance. These
findings suggest that our perceptions don’t just affect our immediate
thoughts and feelings but that holding negative perceptions can also have
real and lasting effects over decades.
Mindset and Stress

] There’s no better illustration of how mindset matters than in research
showing its influence on health and well-being. Overly negative
perceptions explain how many of us tend to respond to normal daily life
challenges, such as getting stuck in traffic, as if they are major life-and-
death stresses.
318
] Over time, stress-induced wear and tear on the body is harmful to our
health. But research on the role of perception also teaches us that we have
the power to reframe our experiences and feel better.
] Researchers in a 2012 study found that people who reported experiencing

a lot of stress yet did not see stress as having a major impact on health
were no more likely to die over the next eight years than those who
had experienced lower levels of stress. But people who reported having
experienced a lot of stress and also believed that stress had a large impact
on their health were 43% more likely to die over the next eight years.
] Such findings indicate that high levels of stress are not necessarily what’s so
harmful. Rather, it’s high levels of stress coupled with believing that stress
is harmful that leads to negative health outcomes.
] That raises an important question: How does holding negative perceptions

exert such substantial effects? One explanation is that people who adopt
positive expectations have better health outcomes because they use adaptive
coping mechanisms to manage stress, such as tackling problems head-on,
seeking out social support, and following medical recommendations.
] Another explanation is that the mere act of believing itself changes the
body’s physiological response. For instance, even placebos, which create a
belief about treatment without other intervention, can lead to changes in
the body and brain, including the release of endorphins that inhibit pain.
Mindset, Food, and Drink

] Belief is important beyond the areas of stress and pain. Researchers in one
study asked people to taste two apparently different French vanilla milk
shakes in a powerful demonstration of how perceptions influence the
body’s physiological reaction to food and drink.
319
] Some people were told that their shake was a diet drink called Sensi-Shake
that contained no fat and no added sugar and was only 140 calories.
Others were given the exact same drink but instead told that it was a rich
dessert called Indulgence, which was high in fat and sugar and contained
620 calories. In reality, calories for both shakes were at the midpoint: 380
calories.
] After the participants finished the drink, researchers measured the level
of a specific stomach hormone called ghrelin in their bodies. After we’ve
eaten a big meal, our ghrelin levels drop, which tells the body that we’ve
consumed enough food.
] People who believed they had consumed the high-caloric drink showed a
substantial drop in ghrelin levels—a change about three times greater than
when they believed they had consumed the diet drink. Simply believing
they had consumed more calories led to changes in the body’s physiological
response and a substantial drop in hunger.
Mindset and Bodily Changes

] Other research shows the power of perception to lead to actual changes in
the body. A 2018 study by researchers at Stanford University found that
simply telling someone they have a genetic predisposition for obesity leads
to physiological changes in the body, as does telling people they have a
lower exercise capacity.
] Some study participants ate a meal, while others ran on a treadmill,

depending on the specific study they were in. Researchers then took blood
samples to assess levels of the ghrelin hormone measuring fullness for those
who ate the meal; for those who ran on the treadmill, researchers measured
lung capacity and how long they continued running. DNA samples were
also taken.
320
] A week later, study participants returned and were given one of two genetic
results, though in reality, results were randomly assigned. This meant that
the results might or might not have been true for each particular person.
] Some people were given the news that they had genes that protected them
from obesity or genes that gave them a higher exercise capacity. Others
were given news that their genes predisposed them to obesity or that their
genes had a lower exercise capacity.
] They were also given information that explained what these results meant.
People eating were told that their bodies produced less of the hormone
indicating fullness, so they would tend to overeat, or that their bodies
produced more of the hormone. People exercising were either told that
their bodies just weren’t able to exercise at as high a level as other people, or
the reverse.
321
] After receiving their made-up results, the participants repeated the exact
same test—eating a meal or running on a treadmill. People who were told
their genes protected them from obesity produced two and a half times
more of the hormone indicating fullness than they had the week before, so
they actually did feel fuller significantly faster. Those who were told their
genes increased their risk of obesity saw no such change.
] People who were told their genes increased their exercise capacity
performed at about the same level as they had the week before. But those
told their genes led them to have a lower exercise capacity performed
significantly worse on the treadmill test. Their lung capacity was reduced,
and they quit running sooner. Together, these two studies indicate
that receiving genetic information can have a positive or a negative
physiological effect on the body.
] The researchers collecting this data on physiological response to the made-

up results immediately afterward gave the study participants a debriefing,
telling them the results were made up and explaining the real purpose
of the research. Overall, such studies point to the single most important
finding from the field of psychology: Simply shifting our mindset can
make a big difference.
Adopting a Positive Mindset

] This lesson concludes with a few suggestions that can help anyone toward
adopting a positive mindset. That, in turn, can improve happiness, health,
and longevity.
] First, thoughts matter. People can change thinking patterns with practice.
Research from the field of positive psychology points to a very simple
strategy for increasing happiness: Focus on what one is grateful for in life.
322
] Exercise also matters. There is an entire field of health psychology where

the interaction between exercise and well-being is studied in-depth,
including how exercise reduces the effects of stress on both physical health
and psychological well-being. Engaging in physical activity leads to the
release of endorphins that literally boost our mood. Exercise may even help
treat depression.
] Close relationships are also important. One of the most influential and
impressive psychology studies of all time, conducted by Harvard University
researchers and known as the Grant Study, underlines the importance of
close relationships.
Y Every two years, starting in 1938, study participants completed

measures of their physical and emotional health as well as their work
status, friendships, and family life. This study was designed to answer
the most fundamental question for us all: What are the predictors of a
good life?
Y The findings point to a clear answer: The only real and consistent
predictor of happiness is relationships. As George Vaillant, who directed
this study for three decades, described it, there are two pillars of
happiness: “One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life
that doesn’t push love away.”
] Finally, social norms are an important consideration. Although we follow

these norms to fit in with our social groups, we can also make crucial
errors in our perception of these norms, with real consequences. Errors we
make about social norms explain many missed opportunities.
Y Yet the remedy can be quite simple: Simply telling people about
the power of social norms helps. And understanding the errors we
make in perceiving social norms—and the consequences of such
misperceptions—can go a long way toward helping us avoid such errors.
323
Y We can all become better at understanding the psychological processes

that lead us to misperceive what those around us are actually thinking.
For instance, we misbelieve that all women want to be thin, and we
wrongly suppose that other people never feel sad or lonely.
Y However, women who learn how campus social norms contribute to

unhealthy body image ideals show lower rates of disordered eating later
on. And people who learn that many of their peers struggle with mental
health challenges have a more positive view of mental health services.
] In short, reducing the mistakes and misunderstandings we make about

other people can also improve our own psychological and physical
well-being.
Reading
Langer, Counterclockwise.
Vaillant,Triumphs of Experience.
324
Quiz Answers can be found
on page 364.
1 Which of the following statements about the things most typically seen
in school shooters is false? [LESSON 1]
a They’ve suffered early childhood trauma, often including exposure to

violence at a young age.
b They’ve experienced some type of recent negative event, such as a

relationship breakup or loss of a parent.
c They’ve spent considerable time playing violent video games.
d They’ve studied other school shootings, often online.
2 The 2018 study by Amy Cuddy trying to replicate the power posing
effect revealed which of the following? [LESSON 1]
a Power posing leads people to feel more powerful.
b Power posing leads people to perform better in mock interviews.
c Power posing leads to increases in testosterone.
d Power posing leads to decreases in cortisol.
325
Quiz
3 Which person is credited with creating the field of positive psychology?

[LESSON 1]
a Elizabeth Loftus.
b Martin Seligman.
c Norman Vincent Peale.
d Sigmund Freud.
4 The study of how language develops based on a girl named Genie, who
had been locked in a small room for years, is an example of which type of
research method? [LESSON 2]
a Survey.
b Naturalistic observation.
c Archival research.
d Case study.
5 What was the main goal of the Stanford Prison Experiment? [LESSON 2]
a To study how situations can lead people to engage in poor behavior.
b To study how the prison system could lead to poor mental health.
c To study people’s willingness to obey orders from an authority.
d To study what type of people are most willing to go along with orders.
326
Quiz
6 What is the key feature experiments have that descriptive studies do not?
[LESSON 2]
a Use of indirect observation.
b Approval by an institutional review board.
c Use of random assignment.
d Use of direct observation.
7 At which age are people the least happy? [LESSON 3]
a Late teens and early 20s.
b 20s and 30s.
c 40s and 50s.
d 60s and 70s.
8 The study in which researchers gave people money along with

instructions on how to spend it found which of the following? [LESSON 3]
a People who received $5 were happier than those who received $20.
b People who received $20 were happier than those who received $5.
c People who spent money on themselves were happier than those who
spent money on someone else.
d People who spent money on someone else were happier than those
who spent money on themselves.
327
Quiz
9 Which of the following statements about the predictors of happiness is

false? [LESSON 3]
a Pleasure, flow, and meaning are the three components of happiness.
b Wealthy people tend to be happier than people at moderate income

levels.
c Personality explains about 50% of our happiness.
d Spending money on experiences typically leads to greater happiness

than spending money on belongings.
10 Which of the following parts of the brain is responsible for processing

emotions and memory? [LESSON 4]
a Hindbrain.
b Midbrain.
c Thalamus.
d Limbic system.
11 The brain’s ability to adapt to our changing needs, based on experience,

is known as which of the following? [LESSON 4]
a Neuroplasticity.
b Regeneration.
c Reorganization.
d Synaptic pruning.
328
Quiz
12 What was the main finding from the study in which older adults engaged
in some type of activity every week for three months? [LESSON 4]
a Adults who engaged in a social activity showed reduced loneliness.
b Adults who learned a complex new skill showed improved cognitive

functioning.
c Adults who engaged in a familiar activity showed greater contentment.
d Adults who learned a complex new skill showed greater frustration.
13 Which of the following diseases is caused by damage to the myelin

sheath? [LESSON 5]
a Diabetes.
b Alzheimer’s disease.
c Multiple sclerosis.
d Parkinson’s disease.
14 People with Alzheimer’s disease show depleted levels of which of the

following neurotransmitters? [LESSON 5]
a Acetylcholine.
b Dopamine.
c Serotonin.
d Glutamate.
329
Quiz
15 Which of the following is often described as the stress hormone?

[LESSON 5]
a Epinephrine.
b Cortisol.
c Oxytocin.
d Testosterone.
16 The model describing connecting with others as an approach to

managing stress often used by women is known as which of the
following? [LESSON 6]
a Share-and-care.
b Tend-and-befriend.
c Fight-flight-freeze.
d Friend-and-tend.
17 Who developed the general adaptation syndrome model of stress?

[LESSON 6]
a Walter Cannon.
b Hans Selye.
c Richard Lazarus.
d Robert Sapolsky.
330
Quiz
18 Which of the following was the main finding of the study using brain
scans to predict the development of PTSD? [LESSON 6]
a Adolescents whose brain scans showed greater activation in the

amygdala in response to negative images were at greater risk of
developing PTSD.
b Adolescents whose brain scans showed less activation in the

amygdala in response to negative images were at greater risk of
developing PTSD.
c Adolescents whose brain scans showed greater activation in the

hippocampus in response to negative images were at greater risk of
developing PTSD.
d Adolescents whose brain scans showed less activation in the

hippocampus in response to negative images were at greater risk of
developing PTSD.
19 The process in which we take in sensory information and convert it to

neural impulses is known as which of the following? [LESSON 7]
a Transference.
b Psychophysics.
c Transduction.
d Sensory reduction.
331
Quiz
20 The finding that cold pizza tastes different than hot pizza is best
explained by which of the following? [LESSON 7]
a Sensory interaction.
b Pheromones.
c The afterimage effect.
d Sensory adaptation.
21 New parents’ ability to detect the slightest sound their baby makes during
the course of the night is a good illustration of which of the following?
[LESSON 7]
a A difference threshold.
b An absolute threshold.
c A just noticeable difference threshold.
d Sensitization.
22 Which of the following is a binocular cue used to perceive depth?

[LESSON 8]
a Convergence.
b Continuity.
c Closure.
d Proximity.
332
Quiz
23 The study in which some college students were primed with words cueing
old age found which of the following? [LESSON 8]
a These students later performed worse on a memory task.
b These students later walked slower.
c These students later performed worse on a vision test.
d These students later performed worse on a hearing test.
24 The monocular cue artists use in which parallel lines appear to converge
as they get further away is which of the following? [LESSON 8]
a Interposition.
b Retinal disparity.
c Perceptual constancy.
d Linear perspective.
25 The theory that our memories of experiences depend largely on how we

feel at more extreme parts is which of the following? [LESSON 9]
a Peak-end theory.
b Gate control theory.
c Intense experience theory.
d Gatekeeper theory.
333
Quiz
26 Which of the following statements about the findings from the study
in which people were given pills labeled with a brand-name label or a
generic label is false? [LESSON 9]
a People who received generic-label ibuprofen reported greater pain

relief than those who took the placebo.
b People who took the brand-name-label pills reported similar levels of

pain relief regardless of whether they received actual ibuprofen or a
placebo.
c People who took placebo pills with a brand name label reported
greater pain relief than those who took the placebo pills with a
generic label.
d People who took the brand-name-label pills reported greater pain relief
if they received the placebo than if they received the actual ibuprofen.
27 Which of the following people was one of the first to demonstrate how
psychological factors influence the experience of pain? [LESSON 9]
a Daniel Kahneman.
b Henry Beecher.
c Bruce Moseley.
d Jeff Galloway.
334
Quiz
28 Which of the following terms describes the process of deliberately

redirecting our attention away from one thing to something else?
[LESSON 10]
a Selective inattention.
b Selective attention.
c Controlled processing.
d Automatic processing.
29 The study using a driving simulator to examine why cell phone use
impairs driving found which of the following? [LESSON 10]
a People talking on a special video phone were less likely to have a

collision than those talking on a regular cell phone.
b People talking on a handheld phone were more likely to have a

collision than those talking on a hands-free phone.
c People talking on a hands-free phone were more likely to have a

collision than those listening to the radio.
d People talking to a passenger in the car were more likely to have a

collision than those talking on a hands-free phone.
30 Which of the following types of brain activity are seen in stage 1 sleep?
[LESSON 10]
a Alpha waves.
b Theta waves.
c Delta waves.
d Sleep spindles.
335
Quiz
31 The study examining the influence of alcohol use on people’s ability to

speak a foreign language found which of the following? [LESSON 11]
a People who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had worse

language fluency than those who did not drink.
b People who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had better

pronunciation than those who did not drink.
c People who consumed large amounts alcohol had worse language

fluency than those who did not drink.
d People who consumed large amounts of alcohol had better

pronunciation than those who did not drink.
32 Which of the following types of drugs causes sensory or perceptual

distortions? [LESSON 11]
a Stimulants.
b Opiates.
c Depressants.
d Hallucinogens.
33 Which of the following statements about the benefits of meditation is

false? [LESSON 11]
a Meditation improves memory.
b Meditation improves cognitive functioning.
c Mediation increases pain tolerance.
d Meditation increases compassion.
336
Quiz
34 Which theory describes how the presence of other people can influences
performance in different ways, depending on how good a person is at a
particular task? [LESSON 12]
a The inverted U hypothesis.
b The drive theory.
c The social facilitation theory.
d The individual zones of optimal functioning model.
35 Which of the following statements about flow is false? [LESSON 12]
a People in a state of flow are fully absorbed in their performance.
b People in a state of flow have no sense of time passing.
c The state of flow is linked with high levels of creativity and

productivity.
d The state of flow is relatively common when first learning a new skill.
36 Which of the following is a strategy designed to help athletes direct their

attention on a particular technique? [LESSON 12]
a Motivational self-talk.
b Thought stopping.
c Instructional self-talk.
d Visualization.
337
Quiz
37 An awareness that things continue to exist even when you cannot see
them is known as which of the following? [LESSON 13]
a Object permanence.
b Relativistic thinking.
c Conservation.
d Egocentrism.
38 Which of these statements about cognitive development in adulthood is

false? [LESSON 13]
a Fluid intelligence tends to peak in the late 60s or early 70s.
b Crystallized intelligence tends to peak in the late 60s or early 70s.
c Older adults tend to pay more sustained attention to positive

information.
d Dementia is not a normal part of cognitive development.
39 Which of the following features of cognitive development is not

commonly seen in adolescence? [LESSON 13]
a Presence of a personal fable.
b Belief in an imaginary audience.
c Individuation.
d Animism.
338
Quiz
40 The study examining language skills in children living in wealthy versus

poor neighborhoods found which of the following? [LESSON 14]
a Children living in the wealthy neighborhood pronounced words more

clearly than those living in poor neighborhoods.
b Children living in the wealthy neighborhood heard more words from

their parents than those living in poor neighborhoods.
c Children living in the wealthy neighborhood recognized familiar

words more rapidly than those living in poor neighborhoods.
d Children living in the wealthy neighborhood learned new words more

quickly than those living in poor neighborhoods.
41 Which of the following people examined how well babies could learn
new words from a “smart baby” DVD? [LESSON 14]
a Anne Fernald.
b Judy DeLoache.
c Noam Chomsky.
d Jean Piaget.
42 Which of the following statements about language acquisition in apes is

false? [LESSON 14]
a Apes seem to be able to put together novel phrases and words.
b Apes show a relatively poor grasp of syntax.
c Apes can make up new signs.
d Apes learn new signs quickly and with minimal effort.
339
Quiz
43 Which of the following terms describes the standard experimental

paradigm created to examine how infants react to temporary separations
from their primary caregiver? [LESSON 15]
a The separation challenge.
b The strange situation.
c The attachment test.
d The isolation paradox.
44 Which of the following statements about infant attachment styles is false?

[LESSON 15]
a Girls are more likely than boys to develop anxious attachment.
b Babies’ prenatal environment may influence attachment.
c Genetic factors influence attachment styles.
d Cultural factors influence attachment styles.
45 The study examining couples’ behavior as they separated at the airport

found which of the following? [LESSON 15]
a Anxious men felt considerable distress.
b Anxious women felt considerable distress.
c Avoidant women felt considerable distress.
d Avoidant men felt considerable distress.
340
Quiz
46 Which of the following tests was used to create the most famous theory
of moral development? [LESSON 16]
a The Phillip-versus-John test.
b The trolley problem.
c The Halifax dilemma.
d The Heinz dilemma.
47 Which researcher examined patterns of brain response while people

engaged in moral reasoning? [LESSON 16]
a Joshua Greene.
b David DeSteno.
c Carol Gilligan.
d Lawrence Kohlberg.
48 Which of the following statements about findings from research in moral

psychology is false? [LESSON 16]
a It’s pretty easy to categorize people into “good people” and “bad
people.”
b People behave more honestly in well-lit rooms.
c Looking into a mirror increases moral behavior.
d Engaging in small acts of dishonesty leads to changes in the brain that

make it easier to engage in bad behavior.
341
Quiz
49 What is the type of reinforcement in which the reward happens after

some period of time, but the recipient don’t know how long that time will
be? [LESSON 17]
a Fixed interval.
b Variable interval.
c Fixed ratio.
d Variable ratio.
50 Who conducted the study on observational learning using Bobo dolls?

[LESSON 17]
a Ivan Pavlov.
b B. F. Skinner.
c Albert Bandura.
d Walter Mischel.
51 A type of learning that starts by reinforcing small behaviors is known as

which of the following? [LESSON 17]
a Shaping.
b Positive punishment.
c Intermittent reinforcement.
d Overjustification.
342
Quiz
52 What is the type of memory involved in remembering a person’s trip to

Italy? [LESSON 18]
a Implicit.
b Procedural.
c Episodic.
d Semantic.
53 Which of the following terms describes a vivid and enduring memory for
how one learned about a surprising, shocking event? [LESSON 18]
a Iconic memory.
b Flashbulb memory.
c Echoic memory.
d Reminiscence bump.
54 What type of memory problem refers to forgetting something that a

person doesn’t really want to remember? [LESSON 18]
a Motivated forgetting.
b Source amnesia.
c Proactive interference.
d Retroactive interference.
343
Quiz
55 What problem-solving error involves actively searching only for

information that confirms our initial expectations? [LESSON 19]
a Confirmation bias.
b Intuition.
c Fixation.
d Functional fixedness.
56 Which of the following statements about groupthink is false? [LESSON 19]
a Groups tend to overestimate their invulnerability and morality.
b Groups tend to be closeminded to the opinions of those outside

the group.
c Groups tend to encourage vigorous debate.
d Groups tend to press members towards unanimity.
57 Which type of error leads us to see granola as a healthier choice than

Lucky Charms? [LESSON 19]
a Availability.
b Confirmation bias.
c Overconfidence.
d Representativeness.
344
Quiz
58 Which of the following statements about eyewitness memory is false?

[LESSON 20]
a People’s natural tendency to focus their attention toward a weapon

makes it harder to identify the face of the person carrying the weapon.
b People are more likely to misidentify a stranger of a different race than

a stranger of their own race.
c People are more likely to misidentify a stranger of a different gender

than a stranger of their own gender.
d People who are in the majority population group are more likely to
misidentify people than those in minority population groups.
59 What was the key finding from the study examining how question
wording influences people’s memory of a crash? [LESSON 20]
a Using the word smashed led people to give faster estimates of

car speed.
b Using the word smashed led people to report seeing more injuries.
c Using the word smashed led people to place more blame on the driver.
d Using the word smashed led people to recommend a more severe

sentence.
345
Quiz
60 What is the Reid technique for handling someone suspected of a crime?

[LESSON 20]
a The use of physical force to elicit a confession.
b The use of misleading and subtly coercive techniques to elicit a

confession.
c The use of a memory recall procedure that has three steps with
eyewitnesses.
d The use of a lineup procedure consisting of people who resemble the

witness’s description of the perpetrator.
61 Who was the first person to propose that a single g factor (meaning
“general intelligence”) underlies performance on all types of cognitive
abilities? [LESSON 21]
a Robert Sternberg.
b Charles Spearman.
c Howard Gardner.
d Lewis Terman.
346
Quiz
62 Which of the following statements about the link between the brain and
intelligence is true? [LESSON 21]
a People with larger brains perform no better on intelligence tests.
b Brain size increases over time in response to environmental

stimulation.
c People with high intelligence show less brain activity when performing
cognitive tasks.
d People with high intelligence show more brain activity when

performing cognitive tasks.
63 The study examining how parents talk to their children in a science

museum found which of the following? [LESSON 21]
a Parents give more explanations to sons than to daughters.
b Parents give more explanations to older children than younger

children.
c Fathers give more explanations than do mothers.
d Fathers give more explanations to sons and mothers give more

explanations to daughters.
347
Quiz
64 Which of the following statements about the components of emotional

intelligence is false? [LESSON 22]
a People who are high in emotional intelligence are good at regulating

their emotions.
b People who are high in emotional intelligence recognize and

understand their emotions.
c People who are high in emotional intelligence can easily imagine the
world from someone else’s perspective.
d People who are high in emotional intelligence are primarily motivated

by external factors.
65 What was the key finding from the study examining the link between
emotional intelligence and job performance? [LESSON 22]
a Emotional intelligence predicts success only in jobs high in

emotional labor.
b Emotional intelligence predicts success only in jobs requiring

technical skills.
c Emotional intelligence predicts success only in jobs requiring

teamwork.
d Emotional intelligence predicts success only in jobs high in deadline

pressure.
348
Quiz
66 Which of the following statements about emotional intelligence is false?

[LESSON 22]
a School-based programs focused on empathy and emotion regulation

can lead to increases in emotional intelligence.
b Emotional intelligence tends to decrease with age.
c Watching high-quality televised dramas can lead to increases in

emotional intelligence.
d Women tend to be higher in emotional intelligence than men.
67 Which of the following statements about the consequences of

experiencing adversity is false? [LESSON 23]
a Adversity increases people’s ability to savor positive experiences.
b Adversity increases people’s ability to distract themselves from negative

experiences.
c Adversity increases people’s ability to show compassion.
d Adversity increases people’s ability to show resilience.
349
Quiz
68 What was the key finding from the study examining people living in
different German cities? [LESSON 23]
a People living in cities that had experienced more bombings during

World War II had higher rates of neuroticism.
b People living in cities that had experienced more bombings during

World War II had lower rates of neuroticism.
c People living in cities that had experienced more bombings during

World War II had had higher rates of depression.
d People living in cities that had experienced more bombings during

World War II had higher rates of anxiety.
69 What does research using MRI tell us about why the ability to focus on
positive experiences changes with age? [LESSON 23]
a Older people focus more on positive experiences than do younger

people.
b Older people focus less on negative experiences than do younger

people.
c Younger people focus more on positive experiences than do older

people.
d Younger people focus less on negative experiences than do older

people.
350
Quiz
70 Which theory proposes that motivation begins with a physiological need?

[LESSON 24]
a Instinct theory.
b Drive reduction theory.
c Incentive theory.
d Optimal arousal theory.
71 Which statement about the characteristics of people who are high on

achievement motivation is false? [LESSON 24]
a They prefer tasks that are high in difficulty.
b They like to compete.
c They keep working even when they face obstacles.
d They prefer tasks with clear goals.
72 What was the key finding from the study on body shape for people living
in Nicaragua? [LESSON 24]
a People with virtually no exposure to media were the most likely to

be obese.
b People with virtually no exposure to media were the most likely to

report dieting.
c People living in the area with the most media exposure rated the
thinner bodies as most attractive.
d People living in the area with the most media exposure were highest in
body satisfaction.
351
Quiz
73 Which theory of emotion proposes that our physiological arousal and

emotional experience happen simultaneously? [LESSON 25]
a The James-Lange theory.
b The Cannon-Bard theory.
c The two-factor theory.
d The facial-feedback theory.
74 Which of the following statements about the social network analysis of

people living in Framingham, Massachusetts, is false? [LESSON 25]
a Having a happy friend leads to increases in happiness.
b Having a friend with a happy friend leads to increases in happiness.
c Happy people prefer to spend time with other happy people.
d Having a happy next-door neighbor leads to increases in happiness.
75 Which of the following statements about cross-cultural research in

emotions is false? [LESSON 25]
a Facial expressions of emotion are the same across cultures.
b Cultural norms about emotion expression differ widely.
c People raised in North America rely more on situational cues to

interpret facial expressions.
d People raised in Asian cultures rely more on situational cues to

interpret facial expressions.
352
Quiz
76 Which researcher developed the first empirical measurement of love,

distinguishing liking from loving? [LESSON 26]
a Zick Rubin.
b David Buss.
c Elaine Hatfield.
d Robert Sternberg.
77 What type of love includes passion, intimacy, and commitment?

[LESSON 26]
a Companionate love.
b Romantic love.
c Consummate love.
d Complete love.
78 What is the key finding from research by John Gottman on the

predictors of divorce? [LESSON 26]
a Couples who fight more frequently are at greater risk of divorce.
b Couples who have more positive interactions than negative

interactions are less likely to get divorced.
c Couples who live together before marriage are more likely to get
divorced.
d Couples who live together before marriage are less likely to get
divorced.
353
Quiz
79 Which of the following statements about the use of graphic warning

labels on cigarette packages is false? [LESSON 27]
a They lead smokers to think more about the harms of smoking
b They lead smokers to have more conversations about quitting.
c They lead smokers to express greater regret about smoking.
d They lead smokers to attempt to quit smoking.
80 What is the compliance technique in which a person first commits to

something and then hidden costs are revealed? [LESSON 27]
a The lowballing technique.
b The door-in-the-face technique.
c The that’s-not-all technique.
d The foot-in-the-door technique.
81 What is the key finding from the first empirical study of cognitive
dissonance? [LESSON 27]
a People who were paid $20 to lie rated the peg-turning task as pretty
interesting.
b People who were paid $1 to lie rated the peg-turning task as pretty
interesting.
c People who were paid $20 to lie agreed to complete this task again.
d People who were paid $1 dollar to lie agreed to complete this

task again.
354
Quiz
82 Which of the following statements about conformity is false?

[LESSON 28]
a People conform because they believe that other people provide

important information.
b People conform because they want to be liked and accepted.
c The drive to conform is especially strong in men.
d The drive to conform is especially strong in teenagers.
83 What is the key finding from the Milgram study examining obedience to
an authority? [LESSON 28]
a Men are more willing to follow orders to shock an innocent person

than are women.
b People are more willing to follow orders to shock an innocent man

than an innocent woman.
c About 65 percent of people will follow orders to deliver the highest

levels of shocks.
d People in Poland are more willing to follow orders to shock an

innocent person than are people in the United States.
84 What is the term describing the tendency to reduce our own effort when
in a group setting? [LESSON 28]
a Social loafing.
b Social dilemma.
c Social inhibition.
d Social facilitation.
355
Quiz
85 What is basking in reflected glory? [LESSON 29]
a The tendency to give people in our in-group favorable treatment.
b The tendency to feel good when members of our in-group succeed.
c The tendency to see out-group members as pretty similar to one

another.
d The tendency to treat people in line with our beliefs about them.
86 Which theory states that any type of unpleasant condition that causes
negative feelings can lead to aggression? [LESSON 29]
a Frustration aggression.
b Cognitive neoassociation.
c Displaced aggression.
d Implicit bias.
87 Which teacher created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes study? [LESSON 29]
a Robert Rosenthal.
b Robert Merton.
c Al Bandura.
d Jane Elliott.
356
Quiz
88 Which model describes altruism as rooted entirely in self-focused

motives? [LESSON 30]
a Reciprocal altruism.
b The egoistic model.
c The evolutionary model.
d The empathy-altruism model.
89 What is the key finding from research examining brain activity among
people who have donated a kidney to a stranger? [LESSON 30]
a People who’ve donated a kidney to a stranger feel worse when seeing

someone else in pain than when experiencing pain themselves.
b People who’ve donated a kidney to a stranger feel the same when

seeing someone else in pain as when experiencing pain themselves.
c People who’ve donated a kidney to a stranger feel better when

reducing someone else’s pain than when reducing their own pain.
d People who’ve donated a kidney to a stranger feel the same when

reducing someone else’s pain and when reducing their own pain.
90 What is the first step in the decision-tree model of helping? [LESSON 30]
a Interpret an event as something requiring help.
b Notice something is happening.
c Evaluate the costs and benefits of providing help.
d Take responsibility for providing help.
357
Quiz
91 Which researcher conducted the famous marshmallow study?

[LESSON 31]
a Walter Mischel.
b Carl Rogers.
c Robert McCrae.
d Abraham Maslow.
92 Which of the following traits is not part of the five-factor model of

personality? [LESSON 31]
a Conscientiousness.
b Optimism.
c Openness to experience.
d Agreeableness.
93 Which model describes self-efficacy as a major influence on personality?

[LESSON 31]
a Humanistic.
b Trait.
c Psychoanalytic.
d Social cognitive.
358
Quiz
94 Which is the most common personality disorder? [LESSON 32]
a Borderline.
b Antisocial.
c Narcissistic.
d Social anxiety.
95 What psychological disorder is characterized by a tremendous fear of

being judged by others? [LESSON 32]
a Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
b Dissociative identity disorder.
c Autism spectrum disorder.
d Social anxiety disorder.
96 What is the name of the manual used to group psychological disorders

into different categories based on various symptoms? [LESSON 32]
a The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
b The Disorders and Symptoms Manual of Mental Disorders.
c The Diagnosis of Symptoms Manual of Mental Disorders.
d The Disorders and Severity Manual of Mental Disorders.
359
Quiz
97 What was the key finding from the study of how people coped following
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake? [LESSON 33]
a People who distracted themselves from thinking about this disaster

showed more symptoms of anxiety later on.
b People who distracted themselves from thinking about this disaster

showed higher levels of depression later on.
c People who ruminated about this disaster showed more symptoms of

depression later on.
d People who shared their feelings about this disaster with close friends
showed lower levels of depression later on.
98 What is the most common type of anxiety disorder? [LESSON 33]
a Generalized anxiety disorder.
b Panic disorder.
c Social anxiety disorder.
d A phobia.
99 Which of the following statements about bipolar disorder is false?

[LESSON 33]
a Bipolar disorder is less common than depression.
b Bipolar disorder is more common in men than in women.
c Bipolar disorder is relatively common among people working in

industries that require creativity.
d Bipolar disorder can lead to severe symptoms and require

hospitalization.
360
Quiz
100 What is the technique used to treat addiction that involves trying
to create a negative association between an unpleasant state, such as
receiving an electric shock, and an unwanted behavior, such as drinking
alcohol? [LESSON 34]
a Aversive conditioning.
b Stimulus control.
c Response substitution.
d Contingency management.
101 Which statement about the study examining the overall effectiveness of
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is false? [LESSON 34]
a AA participation generally led to lower health care costs.
b AA participation was more effective at helping people maintain

sobriety than psychotherapy.
c AA participation was more effective at helping people maintain

sobriety than no intervention at all.
d AA participation generally led to improved life satisfaction.
102 What neurotransmitter is released following drug use, which helps create
addiction? [LESSON 34]
a Serotonin.
b Adrenaline.
c Dopamine.
d Epinephrine.
361
Quiz
103 Which model of psychotherapy is based in the belief that problems arise
when a person’s normal growth and development are blocked, leading
them to develop a poor self-concept? [LESSON 35]
a Client- or person-centered therapy.
b Counterconditioning.
c Psychoanalysis.
d Rational-emotive therapy.
104 Who created rational-emotive therapy? [LESSON 35]
a Carl Rogers.
b Aaron Beck.
c Albert Ellis.
d Sigmund Freud.
105 Which of the following statements about psychotherapy is false?

[LESSON 35]
a Therapy is especially beneficial for people who have relatively clear-cut

problems, such as phobias, compulsions, and depression.
b Therapy is especially beneficial for people with highly debilitating

problems, such as schizophrenia or personality disorders.
c The quality of the therapist-client alliance, or bond, is often a more

important predictor of positive outcomes than the specific therapy
approach used.
d The average client who receives therapy ends up feeling better than
about 80% of those who don’t.
362
Quiz
106 What was the key finding from the study in which women were told that
cleaning hotel rooms counted as part of the recommended daily physical
activity? [LESSON 36]
a Women who were given this information lost weight and lowered their
body fat, blood pressure, and BMI.
b Women who were given this information gained weight and increased
their body fat, blood pressure, and BMI.
c Women who were given this information reported engaging in

increased additional exercise outside of their work time.
d Women who were given this information reported engaging in less

additional exercise outside of their work time.
107 Which of the following statements about the influence of perception is

false? [LESSON 36]
a People with the most negative stereotypes about aging show the most
decline in memory performance over time.
b Older adults in cultures with a positive view of aging perform

substantially better on memory tests than those in cultures with a
negative view of aging.
c People who believe stress has a major impact on health are more likely
to have a heart attack or die from a heart attack than those without
such beliefs.
d People who believe stress has no impact on health live longer.
363
Quiz
108 What is the key finding about the hunger hormone, ghrelin, from the
study in which people drank a milk shake they were told was either high
or low in fat and calories? [LESSON 36]
a People who believed they had consumed the high-caloric drink

showed a substantial drop in ghrelin levels.
b People who believed they had consumed the high-caloric drink

showed a substantial increase in ghrelin levels.
c People who believed they had consumed the low-caloric drink showed
a substantial drop in ghrelin levels.
d People who believed they had consumed the low-caloric drink showed
a substantial increase in ghrelin levels.
Quiz Answers
1 c 13 c 25 a 37 a 49 b 61 b 73 b 85 b 97 c
2 a 14 a 26 d 38 a 50 c 62 c 74 c 86 b 98 d
3 b 15 b 27 b 39 d 51 a 63 a 75 c 87 d 99 b
4 d 16 b 28 a 40 c 52 c 64 d 76 a 88 b 100 a
5 a 17 b 29 a 41 b 53 b 65 a 77 c 89 b 101 d
6 c 18 a 30 a 42 d 54 a 66 b 78 b 90 b 102 c
7 c 19 c 31 b 43 b 55 a 67 b 79 c 91 a 103 a
8 d 20 a 32 d 44 a 56 c 68 b 80 a 92 b 104 c
9 b 21 b 33 a 45 b 57 d 69 a 81 b 93 d 105 b
10 d 22 a 34 c 46 d 58 c 70 b 82 c 94 b 106 a
11 a 23 b 35 d 47 a 59 a 71 a 83 c 95 d 107 d
12 b 24 d 36 c 48 a 60 b 72 c 84 a 96 a 108 a
364
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Who are the members of the leadership team?

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Topic Subtopic

Science Neuroscience & Psychology

Catherine A. Sanderson is the Poler Family Professor of Psychology and the

2 How and Why Psychology Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 Positive Psychology: A Science of Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4 Your Brain: A User’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5 Your Nervous System, Hormones, and Behavior . . . . . . . . . . 38

6 Understanding and Managing Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

7 Sensation: How You Gather Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

8 Perception: Illusions and Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

9 Pain and Placebos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

10 Attention, Sleep, and Dreaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

11 Consciousness Modified: Drugs to Mindfulness . . . . . . . . . . 95

12 Performance Psychology in Sport and Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

13 Cognitive Development across the Lifespan . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

14 How Language Develops and Why It Matters . . . . . . . . . . . 120

15 Attachment Bonds from Infancy to Adulthood . . . . . . . . . . 129

16 Moral Development and Situational Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

17 Learning: Conditioned, Reinforced, Observed . . . . . . . . . . 147

18 Memory and Forgetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

19 Problem-Solving and Errors of Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

20 Psychology of Eyewitnesses and Confessions . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

21 Intelligence and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

22 Emotional Intelligence and Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

23 Adversity and Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

24 Motivation: Eating, Sex, and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

25 Emotions: Why You Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

26 Attraction, Love, and Lasting Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

27 Strategies of Persuasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

28 Conformity, Social Loafing, and Obedience . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

29 Stereotypes and Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

30 Altruism: Origins and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

31 Explaining Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

32 Demystifying Psychological Disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

33 The Epidemic of Mood and Anxiety Disorders . . . . . . . . . . 290

34 Understanding and Overcoming Addiction . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

35 Ways Therapy Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

36 Mindset, Health, and General Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

The field of psychology examines a variety of wide-ranging topics, including

The first segment of the course describes foundational topics in psychology,

The third segment examines fundamental issues in development across the

The fourth segment involves a range of topics within cognitive psychology.

The fifth segment examines topics in motivation, emotion, and social

Another resource is Catherine’s textbook Real World Psychology, which

The Four Goals

Y Children who take music lessons tend to score higher on intelligence

1 They have suffered early childhood trauma, often including exposure to

2 They have experienced some type of recent negative event, such as a

3 They have studied other school shootings, often online.

THE FOUR GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

] But psychology research is much broader than just a clinical science

] Additionally, psychology is an applied science. Researchers try to predict

] In other cases, more recent attempts to repeat classic

] Considerable research in the field of positive psychology demonstrates that

] A 2020 study shows that we can learn skills in positive psychology